Skip to content
Log inRegister
    HomePaintingsDrawingsPrintsBrowse all worksWilson collectionsWilson collections mapTercentenary exhibitionOther exhibitionsProject highlightsThemes and mediaBiographiesBibliographical Resources
    Advanced search
    Work of ArtBiographiesExhibitionsBibliographical Resources
    Settings
    Pages
    300 years
    Return to "Spencer-Longhurst 2012" is linked to these Works 14 items
    of 14

    Coast Scene, near Barmouth

    This item is active and ready to use
    Coast Scene, near Barmouth
    Coast Scene, near Barmouth
    Coast Scene, near Barmouth
    The Trustees of the British Museum
    title=Credit line
    Larger imageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Coast Scene, near Barmouth
    Date
    c.1760-65 (undated)
    Medium
    Graphite
    Dimensions
    Metric: 146 x 199 mm
    Imperial: 5 3/4 x 7 13/16 in.
    Collection
    The British Museum. To license image, click here
    Accession Number
    1867,1214.775
    Wilson Online Reference
    D263
    Description
    View along the coast of a calm sea or lake, with a peaked mountain rising on the right and a few boats in the bay
    Provenance
    Sir George Howland Beaumont; George Arnald ARA (1763-1841); Smith [...] purchased from John Deffett Francis, December 1867
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; inscribed:
    [1] Upper right in black ink: This drawing was taken out of Wilson's | Sketch book Novr 20th 1822. belonging | to Sir G. Beaumont Bart.. and given by | him to me [...] G. Arnald | who now gives it his old friend Smith
    [2] Centre, black chalk: Vortigern
    Subject
    The traditional location near Barmouth may be misleading. If as seems probable the inscription relates to the fifth-century British warlord King Vortigern, the coastline is likely to be that of Llyn Dinas and the mountain behind it Yr Aran near Beddgelert in Snowdonia, North Wales. In legend the hill fort of Dinas Emrys, Arfon, Gwynedd, owes its origins to Vortigern. Hard pressed by his enemies, he fled westwards into Wales and remained as a powerful exile with Dinas Emrys as his greatest fortification there. A valley on the north coast of the Lleyn Peninsula, known as Nant Gwrtheyrn or 'Vortigern's Gorge', is named after Vortigern, and until modern times sheltered a small barrow known locally as 'Vortigern's Grave', along with a ruin known as 'Vortigern's Fort'. In 1770 Angelica Kauffman exhibited a painting relating to Vortigern at the Royal Academy (116)
    Related Drawings
    D4 Box Hill, Surrey,YCBA
    D367 Study for Snowdon from Llyn NantlleThe Huntington Library, San Marino, California
    D370 Conway Castle, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] Angelica Kauffman, Vortigern King of Britain enamoured with Rowena, at the Banquest of Hengist, the Saxon General, RA 1770 (116)
    Critical commentary
    It seems impossible that the sketchbook referred to in the inscription was part of D280 Italian Sketchbook, which belonged to Beaumont from 1784 as the paper size and Welsh subject-matter do not relate to it. However, D263 can be linked to an unlocated sketchbook from which were also taken D4, D367, D370 and a known but missing page with a drawing of a ruined tower.
    Bibliography
    E. Pugh, Cambria Depicta: A Tour through North Wales, 1816, pp. 138-39; Binyon 33; Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 19, fig. 22; Spencer-Longhurst 2012, pp. 61-62, fig. 34
    More Information
    George Arnald, ARA (1763-1841) was a British painter who specialised in landscapes and topographical views. He is best known for his celebrated picture,The Destruction of 'L'Orient' at the Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798 (1825-27, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London). This was exhibited in 1827 at the British Institution (43) and he showed many other works there, as he did at the Royal Academy. Arnald was a friend of fellow artist John Varley, with whom he toured Wales in 1798 and 1799. It is possible that the Smith of the inscription was the topographical watercolourist, John 'Warwick' Smith (1749-1831).
    Updated by Compiler
    2016-06-09 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Box Hill, Surrey,YCBA
    • Study for Snowdon from Llyn NantlleThe Huntington Library, San Marino, California
    • Conway Castle, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

    Biographies

    • John Deffett Francis (1815-1901)
    • Sir George Beaumont (1753-1827)

    Documents

    • Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists and Artists of Foreign Origin working in Great Britain preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum
    • Paul Spencer-Longhurst, 'All the Quality of his Pictures except the Colour': Richard Wilson's Drawings as Collectors' Items
    • Denys Sutton & Ann Clements, An Italian Sketchbook by Richard Wilson, RA: Drawings made by the Artist in Rome and its Environs in the Year 1754
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy