Rocky Valley, North Wales, 1948, oil and gesso on canvas, private collection© The Estate of John Piper
Exhibition: John Piper’s Mountains of Wales at National Museum Cardiff until May 13 2012.John Piper is celebrated for his Welsh landscapes, in particular the valleys and mountains he captured in northern Wales.
Between the mid 1940s and 1950s he produced such a rich seam of work there that, together with the churches, coasts and countrified landscapes of Kent and Sussex, the Snowdonia paintings are now regarded as quintessential Piper.
The northern Welsh connection began during his years as a war artist, with a commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee to record the quarries of Manod Mawr mountain.
Captivated by the untamed scenery, which was nevertheless scarred by the open cast slate quarries that littered its slopes, Piper found in Manod Mawr a captivating setting in which to create a series of watercolours and oils that have since helped define him.
Full of dark and brooding skies, with trademark swathes of shimmering red, gold, emerald and blue, the Snowdonia paintings seem like the perfect fusion of his
Neo-Romantic poeticism and the gentle abstraction he perfected in years of experimentation and travel.
That sense of experimentation can be seen in the Impressionistic washes of the watercolours and in the rich complexity of the oils, which seem imbued with an intense, almost mystical glow that recalls his inspirational forebears JMW Turner and Samuel Palmer.
Little wonder then that Wales continued to fascinate Piper throughout his career but for a mid-century ten-year period it was Snowdon that relentlessly reeled him in. With his wife, the art critic Myfanwy Piper (nee Evans), he rented two cottages in the Snowdonia area, Pentre in the Nant Ffrancon Valley and Bodesi, near Llyn Ogwen opposite Tryfan.
It has been said that the paintings he produced in this fertile period amidst the Welsh mountains – some of them rendered as vast monoliths beneath ominous skies – are symbolic of the hopes and fears of the wartime years and the period after.
But whatever the historic backdrop and sense of meaning, Wales provided a rich network of cultural and personal encounters and inspiration.
Capitalising on this sense of place, National Museum Cardiff has hung the pictures, which are on loan from a private collection, next to a series of photographs of the locations – in some cases they have even found the exact spot where Piper would have stood or sat to paint and draw the scenes before him.
The largest collection of Snowdonia pictures by John Piper ever brought together in one room, this then is a chance to be immersed in one of the strongest and most tangible topographical sources of inspiration that captivated one of our most important painters of landscapes.
More paintings from the exhibition:
The Rise of the Dovey, 1943-44, oil on gessoed canvas mounted on board, private collection© Estate of John Piper
Rocks at Capel Curig, about 1950, ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, private collection© Estate of John Piper
Jagged Rocks under Tryfan, 1949-50, ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, private collection© The Estate of John Piper
The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue by the exhibition curator Melissa Munro, including an essay by David Fraser Jenkins, formerly Senior Curator at Tate.
