Another painting I love is this watercolour by the English artist, Francis Towne (1739–1816). I saw it a couple of years ago as part of the Paul Mellon exhibition at the Royal Academy (2007/08) – held in the Sackler Wing, one of my favourite galleries.

He painted it in 1786, but it has an amazingly modern feel to it. I love the way he has segmented the colour on the Lakeland hillside. It’s a small painting – and like many looks even better in reality than in reproduction.

Ambleside 1786