Among the first American-born landscape artists, Thomas Doughty taught himself to paint by copying British landscape paintings and prints. Lake Scene exhibits the lyrical, atmospheric quality typical of Doughty’s work: it depicts an idyllic imaginary landscape that appears to be set among the grandiose mountains of the Swiss Alps rather than along the Hudson River Valley or New England wilderness where he often worked. Doughty found greatest commercial success with his imaginary, romantic landscapes, such as depicted in this fanciful lake scene.