View near Knaresborough, with cattle and figures by a river

Henry Ladbrooke was the son of landscape painter Robert Ladbrooke. He was also the nephew of John Crome, under whom he studied for a short period.
By around 1840 he toured Yorkshire and the North of England. The present work is likely to have been painted during this time. Dr Peter Kennedy-Scott suggests that it is the painting exhibited in the first exhibition of the Norfolk and Norwich Art Union in 1839 as 'Scene at Knaresborough from nature...'.