The house beyond the lake is The Manor, next to the parish church at Upper Swell, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. The artist was living in Stow-on-the-Wold in 1939 when this picture was painted, and at Church House in the village of Naunton the year before.

James was born in Prestbury and for most of his life was a practising architect. Between 1903-8 he worked with Edwin Lutyens at London University. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1911, and also at the New English Art Club and the Goupil Gallery. He devoted himself fully to painting full time in 1925. His painting Winter on the Windrush of 1938 was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest and is now in the Tate Gallery.