View of Oberalp Lake 1767 - 1824

Franz Xaver Triner made this watercolor of the Oberalp Lake in Switzerland sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. It shows a sublime, expansive vista from a popular alpine pass. Watercolors like this served not only as records of place, but also as souvenirs of the Grand Tour, during which aristocratic Europeans visited the continent's cultural and scenic highlights. In Britain, the vogue for picturesque landscape coincided with parliamentary acts that enclosed common land, restricting access for ordinary people. Was this artwork, and others like it, made to be consumed by the very people complicit in that process? Is it part of the growth in tourism? Certainly, it's useful to consider the historical context of watercolor painting, the market it served, and its role in the development of national identity. These are just a few of the threads we historians can pull on to understand the social life of art.