A watercolour of distant mountains on left, the sea or a lake, a viaduct and a castle on right. Sheep and figures in foreground. Frame verso: inscribed by the artist on a label 'No 2 Composition Evening J. Varley'.

The watercolourist John Varley trained under Joseph Barrow and became an influential teacher to David Cox, Turner of Oxford and others. He attended Dr Monro's evening classes where he met JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin, and travelled extensively in Wales. Between 1816 and 1821 Varley published a Treatise on the Principles of Landscape Drawing and A Pictural Treatise on the Art of Drawing in Perspective. This watercolour is likely intended as a teaching aid, to demonstrate a type of landscape composition.