Description
As a young man, William Turner removed himself from the competitive London art world and returned to his native Oxford to teach and paint in solitude. This retreat may have been because he shared the same name as his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner, or it may have been prompted by his apparently retiring personality. He painted prolifically and traveled widely in Britain in search of subjects. This watercolor describes the dramatic mountain scenery of north Wales. The close-up view of the hillside and sheep in the left foreground juxtaposed with the sweeping vista of the mountains of Snowdonia invites a comparison of the minute with the infinite.
Provenance
Private collection, England (?-2003); (Lowell Libson, London) (2003-2004); (Lowell Libson, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) (2009-2010); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2010-)
A View from Moel Cynwich: Looking Over the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Toward Cader Idris
c. 1850
Accession Number
2010.147
Medium
watercolor with scratch-away, heightened with white
Dimensions
Sheet: 48.9 x 70.3 cm (19 1/4 x 27 11/16 in.); Secondary Support: 49.5 x 70.8 cm (19 1/2 x 27 7/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Tags
Drawing Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Watercolor British
Background & Context
Background Story
William Turner (active mid-19th century) was a British painter known for the atmospherically composed, precisely observed watercolor landscapes that make him one of the accomplished watercolorists of the British tradition. A View from Moel Cynwich from c. 1850 depicts the view from Moel Cynwich looking over the Vale of Afon Mawddach toward Cader Idris in Wales in the atmospherically composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Turner's best work. The Welsh landscape—with its dramatic mountains and valleys—was one of the most important subjects in British watercolor painting, and the c. 1850 painting shows the British watercolor tradition at its most accomplished.
Cultural Impact
A View from Moel Cynwich is important in the history of British watercolor painting because it demonstrates the atmospherically composed, precisely observed manner that Turner brought to the Welsh landscape as one of the accomplished watercolorists of the British tradition. The Welsh landscape—with its dramatic mountains and valleys—was one of the most important subjects in British watercolor painting, and the c. 1850 painting shows this tradition at its most atmospherically composed.
Why It Matters
A View from Moel Cynwich is Turner's atmospherically composed Welsh watercolor: the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Cader Idris rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the accomplished watercolorists of the British tradition. The c. 1850 painting shows the dramatic Welsh landscape at its most atmospherically composed.
