Artwork Page for A View from Moel Cynwich: Looking Over the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Toward Cader Idris

Details / Information for A View from Moel Cynwich: Looking Over the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Toward Cader Idris

A View from Moel Cynwich: Looking Over the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Toward Cader Idris

c. 1850

William Turner

(British, 1789–1862)
Culture
England, 19th century
Medium
watercolor with scratch-away, heightened with white
Measurements
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.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2010.147
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

In 1808, William Turner was elected the then youngest member of London's Society of Painters in Water Colours.

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.
A horizontally oriented watercolor painting depicts a vast mountain valley from an elevated, rocky slope. In the lower left, three sheep rest near a figure in red raising an arm by a post. A pale river winds through the valley floor toward distant, shimmering water. Layered blue mountains recede beneath a cloudy sky where shafts of light break through. Fine, scratched lines texture the craggy rocks and spindly, brown shrubs.

A View from Moel Cynwich: Looking Over the Vale of Afon Mawddach and Toward Cader Idris

c. 1850

William Turner

(British, 1789–1862)
England, 19th century

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