A view from a shore with a small landed craft, lower right, looking over Lake Maggiore to the Isola dei Piscatori, the right-hand side occupied by the red roofed town, the other half forested; mountains beyond the lake.

The Italian lakes were a popular location for artists and travellers in the 19th century. Queen Victoria holidayed at Baveno on the west coast of Lake Maggiore in the spring of 1879, with her youngest daughter Beatrice. Thompson took his annual holiday abroad to Baveno in 1883, which is presumably when this work was painted. He was accompanied by his son Herbert, rather that his daughter Kate, an artist, who usually travelled with him (see RCIN 406274). A label on the back records that the view was taken from 'a little beyond the Villa Clara, a study on the spot by Sir H. Thompson'. It was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in May 1886.

Sir Henry Thompson was a talented surgeon, polymath and amateur artist. His medical speciality was the removal of bladder stones, an operation which he performed on Leopold I, King of the Belgians and Napoleon III. However, he had studied painting with Alfred Elmore and later Alma Tadema, and had exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. He was knighted in 1867 and received a baronetcy in 1899. He moved in artistic and literary circles and was known for his 'Octaves'; dinner parties for eight (male guests) to which eight simple courses were served. His 300th Octave of 25 February, 1904 was attended by the Prince of Wales, (later King George V), Derek Keppel, Alma Tadema and Arthur Conan Doyle.