2-913-596 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Bay of Uri, Lake of Lucerne" - painted by W.C. Smith - from the Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, 1854., 1854. 'For the solemn grandeur of its natural features, and the romantic historical interest attaching to it, the narrow Bay of Uri...is a point of signal attraction with all tourists imbued with a love of the picturesque and the poetical. Here it was that [William] Tell leaped ashore, from the boat of the Austrian tyrant, and proclaimed the independence of the Swiss Cantons...and here stands the little chapel, commemorative of the event, where mass is said annually on the Friday after Ascension. It is from this point that Mr. Smith has taken the view...and which we have great pleasure in engraving. The lofty mountain crags, the deep dark water, and the varied atmospheric effects peculiar to mountain lake scenery, are all realised with admirable success'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.