Windermere During the Regatta 1832

David Cox made this watercolor painting of Windermere during the Regatta. Here, we see a genteel crowd enjoying a summer day in the Lake District, the men in fine suits and the women in colorful dresses. The picture is of a specific place and event, but it also tells us much about the social and cultural context of early 19th-century England. We see, for example, the rise of leisure culture among the upper classes. Regattas, horse races, and other sporting events became popular gathering places for the wealthy, and the Lake District became a popular tourist destination, as a direct result of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge. Cox's painting naturalizes this social order. He makes the scene look beautiful, harmonious, and inevitable. The art historian, however, can look deeper, consulting tourist guides, social registers, newspaper accounts, and other primary sources to understand the specific dynamics of class and taste at play in this seemingly innocent scene.