The watercolour was painted the year after the artist moved to Bayswater, then a village separated from London by fields; the city is seen here on the horizon. The sheet of paper is inscribed ‘Study from Nature’ in the bottom left-hand corner, indicating that the composition was largely painted on the spot. This is also suggested by the bright, fresh colours of the sunlit landscape – it is quite unlike his more carefully modulated view of Snowdon, displayed nearby, which was almost certainly painted in the studio.