Moel Siabod - in the Valley of the Lledr. Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923). Signed and dated 1871. Oil on board, 23 x 36 inches. Provenance: Agnews, 1871, Cooling Galleries, London, Haynes Fine Art, Broadway, no. 2102, Private collection, UK. Courtesy of the Maas Gallery. Exhibited: Thomas Agnew and Sons, 1871, no. 76. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
According to the Maas Gallery site, “At the height of his career, Leader was described as 'the landscape-painter of the day' (The Sketch, 29 May 1901). His poetic views of the English and Welsh countryside, exhibited and reproduced often, were romantic, yet restrained: 'a happy medium between excess of detail and over-elaboration on the other hand' (The Art Journal, 1871). This view of the valley of the Lledr River, in North Wales, was painted especially for an exhibition held by Agnews in 1871, and hung alongside two other Welsh landscapes, all of which were praised as fine examples of 'the artist's freshest and most vigourous manner' (Birmingham Daily Post, 17 November 1871). Moel Siabod is a mountain in the National Park of Snowdonia, isolated above the villages of Betws-y-Coed and Capel Curig.”
The Maas Gallery, London has most generously given its permission to use in the
Readers should consult the gallery website to obtain information about recent exhibitions and to order their catalogues. [GPL]
Bibliography
Wood, Ruth. Benjamin Leader. Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club: 1998.
Last modified 11 September 2020