Sublime Snowdonia

Looking northwest towards Llyn Peris in the Vale of Llanberis, North Wales. This wonderfully atmospheric watercolour by James Baker Pyne (1800–1870) shows the profound influence that J.M.W. Turner had on the artist's work from around the 1830s onwards. The painting's ethereal quality—achieved by a restricted palette, suggestive ink line and impressionistic application of washes—can be compared with a 1832 watercolour by Turner depicting Llanberis Lake and Snowdon from the opposite end (image 2 © National Galleries of Scotland). Turner similarly has figures in the foreground water and denotes the simple profile of Dolbadarn Castle in the middle-distance. A more worked up example in oil by Pyne shows figures washing in the river at nearby Beddgelert (image 3 © Indianapolis Museum of Art Galleries at Newfields).