Whilst Charles Holmes was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University and editor of The Burlington Magazine, he visited Italy in April 1906 and on the way back sketched this view from the train that had stopped outside Lucerne, Switzerland. He had published a book on the Japanese printmaker, Hokusai (1760-1849) in 1899 and the scene caught his imagination. He submitted a picture to the New English Art Club for its exhibition in May 1907 but after another artist Philip Wilson Steer commented, ‘It makes me shiver to look at it’, Holmes decided to make another version in a warmer tone which he did on one Sunday. It was the second version that was later chosen by Robbie Ross (1869-1918) who was on the committee of the new Contemporary Art Society, whilst Holmes was director of the National Portrait Gallery. And it was subsequently presented by the CAS to the Tate Gallery in 1917, after Holmes had meanwhile become director of The National Gallery. The original version had been included in the artist’s first solo show held at Ross’s Carfax Gallery, Piccadilly in January 1909 as Red Ruin, Lucerne No. 1 - 1906 but remained in the family.
