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View of Cader Idris, Wales

Maker

(artist)
1769-1859

Title

Date of Production

1802 or 1807

Medium

graphite washed with a fixative on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 25.3 cm
Width: 37.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3138

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Ward first visited Wales in 1802 to prepare illustrations for a Board of Agriculture survey on breeds of livestock. During this three-month trip he made over five hundred unrelated landscape drawings. To facilitate such quick sketching, he used a writing system called ‘shorthand’ to rapidly note down topographical features. In this type of script, each stroke indicates a different sound. At upper right Ward notes where clouds should be depicted, while at lower right he describes the colours in which the rocks should be rendered in a final composition.

Provenance

Edward Speelman (London); purchased there by Colnaghi (London), 17 February 1936; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Reading Drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 21/01/2017-04/06/2017

catalogue untraced, Churchill Club, London, 1945

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 54

Inscriptions

Inscription: Craig-y-Cau

Inscription: Sea

Inscription: [...] clouds

Inscription: Top of Caderidris-

Inscription: Llynycau / or / pool of Cau, high as St Pauls High, but under our feet //

Inscription: Craig - y Cau [followed by shorthand notes]

Inscription: something like "[...] the rock b w blue black little[?] [...] every dk d [...] / [...] stone of the or rocks [...] gr stones of the for grn [...] dk / every [...] stones brown rock".

Inscription: JWD RA

Inscription: A 8160

Inscription: James Ward R.A. Cader Idris / Exh. Churchill Club. 1945 / 3138 //

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b)

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