Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River

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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

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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

27/04/2022

Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River

Work of Art

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