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    300 years
    Return to "Solkin 1982" is linked to these Works 176 items
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    Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River

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    Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River
    Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River
    Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jnr. Fund
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River
    Date
    c.1774 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 89.8 x 105.5 cm
    Imperial: 35 5/16 x 41 1/2 in.
    Collection
    Cleveland Museum of Art. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    1989.52
    Wilson Online Reference
    P179A
    Description
    The view is of the peaks of Mynydd Moel and Cader Idris from a point several miles to the north-east, near the banks of the River Mawddach in Merionethshire, North Wales. The town of Dolgellau is hidden by the hill on the right of the view and a house called Gelligemlyn is visible in the valley.
    Exhibited
    RA 1774 (316) - a version entitled View of Caderidris Mountains in north Wales ; RA Old Masters 1892 (7); Corporation of London, Guildhall 1899 Loan Exhibition of Works by J.M.W. Turner and his Contemporaries (162); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (136b); London, Agnews 1989, Master Paintings - Recent Acquisitions (39); Denver 1993 (7)
    Provenance
    Col. Michael Glazebrook, Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall, sold Christie's 21 June 1890 (131 - A View in Wales, bt Colnaghi, £99-15-0); H.W. Worsley-Taylor; F. Worsley-Taylor Q.C. by 1892; Sir James Worsley-Taylor and by descent to Dorothea Worsley-Taylor, Haslemere, Surrey; Sotheby's London, 15 March 1978 (113); Leggatt & Sons, London; on loan to the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1978-83; with Leggatt, London in 1984; 1989, bought by the Cleveland Museum of Art
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Subject
    The picture is one of several views that Wilson painted from this location, one of which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1774. The most imposing landmark is the summit of Mynydd Moel in the centre, and to its right lies Cader Idris, which contains the volcanic lake, Llyn Cau, depicted in P153. The mountain was traditionally the focus of numerous legends, supposedly the home of a monstrous giant and a Welsh seat of King Arthur. One of the factors likely to have prompted Wilson to paint this countryside, apart from its rugged beauty, was this mythological association, comparable with the classical legends of Italy
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    Although almost all of Wilson's earlier pictures of Wales suggest some association with that country's heroic past, here the emphasis is on the pleasing beauty of the land. Katharine Baetjer has noted how the loosely brushed sky at the upper right and the soft, misty light over the river contribute to the naturalistic effect.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    CMA 89.52
    Bibliography
    Booth Notes Doc. 4, p. 2; WGC pp. 180-81, pl. 45a (untraced version); Solkin 1982, pp. 241-242, no. 136b; Baetjer 1993, pp. 100-101
    More Information
    This is very probably the version described by Benjamin Booth as in the collection of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn at Wynnstay, along with a view of Snowdon (P152B).
    Condition/Conservation
    Dimensions framed: 105.5 x120.5 x 7 cm (41 1/2 x 47 7/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
    Updated by Compiler
    2022-04-27 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Valley of the Mawddach, with Cader Idris beyond, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Valley of the Mawddach, with Cader Idris beyond, Manchester City Galleries
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Valley of the Mawddach, with Cader Idris , National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 11 December 1993 - 6 February 1994

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 4: Biographical Fragments and abandoned List of Works
    • Katherine Baetjer, Glorious Nature: British Landscape Painting 1750-1850
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