John Varley OWS Snowdon, Wales

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, John Varley OWS, Snowdon, Wales.

This starkly beautiful watercolour by one of the founding masters of the medium in Britain, John Varley OWS (1778–1842), shows a view looking towards Snowdon across Llyn Nantle Uchaf. The drawing is a fine example of the artist's innovative use of unmodulated layers of colour wash with hard edges. Particularly appealing here is the ephemeral translucency of the wash and the gentle luminosity created by the pinkish highlights; the stronger russet browns and greys by contrast are almost in silhouette.

The mountains of North Wales were to inspire Varley more than any other landscape. From the late 18th century onwards, following the publication of Thomas Pennant's Tours in Wales (1778) and Journey to Snowdon (1783), and the topographical work of Paul Sandby (1725–1809) in Wales, the area was to become increasingly popular with tourists and artists. Varley's first sketching tour of Wales, in the company of George Arnald (1763–1841), in 1798 or 1799, was an experience that would prove decisive in the direction of his art. He returned there in 1800, and again in 1802, when he was joined by his brother, Cornelius. Varley's contemporaries, Cotman, Turner and Girtin, also all made visits to North Wales at this time, with their patron Sir George Beaumont leasing a house up the Conwy Valley in which he would entertain literary and artist guests.

In a departure from the purely topographical, for Varley an appreciation for the old masters Claude and Poussin, via the influence of Richard Wilson (1714–1782), brought to his work a classical sense of balance and poetry. This new outlook on landscape can be seen in the present watercolour: the pared back composition allows the 'whisper' of the landscape's sublime grandeur to be heard, whilst its quiet poise contains it within a moment of dramatic tension.

Varley is well known to have repeated views and compositions, and the Snowdon panorama proved an ideal subject for variation of arrangement or effect. There are a number of similar examples in public collections, the present composition being perhaps closest to Welsh Landscape (National Galleries of Scotland D 4781) and Snowdon (Manchester Art Gallery 1890.37). Further similar examples include Llanberis, at foot of Snowdon (Art Gallery of NSW 8033) and A View of Snowdon with Bala Lake (A Capriccio) (Eton College FDA-D.518-2010), along with a vista at Cader Idris that sold at Christies in 2022 for £9,450.

This repetition was not without purpose, as Varley's prolific output during his most creative period, between the years of 1805 and 1813, meant that he exhibited approximately 330 watercolours at the Old Water-Colour Society, averaging about 41 a year. He rose to become a hugely successful drawing teacher, and often used his small paintings as teaching aids—many of which were his 'happiest and most characteristic works' (A History of the 'Old Water-Colour' Society, John Lewis Roget, 1891). He taught many of the next generation of watercolourists, notably John Linnell, William Henry Hunt, William Turner of Oxford, Copley Fielding, David Cox and Peter De Wint.

In watercolour wash on cream wove paper.

Inscribed faintly upper left: 'Snowdon by John Varley'.

Provenance: The Collection of the etcher Percy James Westwood (1878–1958) and by descent.