Large 19th Century Oil Painting Historic Mount Snowdon North Wales Attributed Edward William 1781 1855
£6,500 per item
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Item details
Height
78.5 cm
Width
87.5 cm
Depth
7.0 cm
Wear conditions
Good
Included
Wear conditions
Excellent
Shows little to no signs of wear and tear.
Good
May show slight traces of use in keeping with age. Most vintage and antique items fit into this condition.
Average
Likely to show signs of some light scratching and ageing but still remains in a fair condition.
Apparent Wear and Tear
Visible signs of previous use including scratches, chips or stains.
Please refer to condition report, images or make a seller enquiry for additional information.
Description
1 Fine Art Early 19th Century Work of Art Oil Painting Mount Snowdon Snowdonia North Wales Attributed Edward William 1781-1855.
Make a big statement to impress your clients & guests with this inspirational honeypot landscape painting for you office or home wall space, a great family heirloom to pass down through the generations.
Subject Welsh landscape view of the beautiful Snowdon mountain range with lakeland.
Oil on canvas.
Circa early 19th century 1830s Willam IV era.
Set in a fine gilt frame which has sea shell mould decorations in each corner, which enhances this work of art further.
Title “Mount Snowdon” Snowdonia North Wales Attributed To Edward Williams.
The landscape having such fabulous deep perspective, which is so breathtaking your focus is drawn to the fascinating beautiful Snowdon mountain & Snowdonia range in the background, in the lower foreground beautiful view of the the river Afon Glaslyn running through the Gwynant Valley. Further below are local Welsh people on a path with larbe stone boulders around the gentlemen huntsman is wearing a black top hat & a smart golden brown overcoat, he is on his white donkey, his assistant is by his side wearing a darker brown overcoat with a backpack & carrying a gun. Further over are 3 women who are foraging. Overheard clouds descending with mainly clear blue light sky with scattered cloud cover.
A good display size with the frame being 87.5cm wide and 78.5cm high.
Unsigned.
Attributed to Edward Williams 1781-1855.
A fine example.
Biography of Edward Williams (1781 – 24 June 1855) was an English landscape painter during the Victorian era. He had six sons, who were well-known landscape painters as well. Williams is considered the patriarch of the Williams family of painters, which is also referred to as the Barnes School. Although 1782 is usually given for his birth date, Edward Williams was actually born in 1781 in London, and baptized 13 October 1781 at St. Mary's Church in the Lambeth district. His mother Mary Ward was a sister of James Ward, the well-known animal painter, and a sister of the equally well-known engraver William Ward. She was also a sister-in-law of the brilliant figure painter George Morland, and a sister-in-law of Henry Chalon, another animal painter. His father, also named Edward Williams, was an engraver who worked with the master mezzotint engraver John Raphael Smith, and ran with a notorious group of drinkers that included the aforementioned George Morland, and Thomas Rowlandson the caricaturist. As such, the younger Williams grew up surrounded by artists, of whom Ward and Moreland were two the best-known painters in Georgian London.
Edward Williams, junior was sent around 1792 or 1793 to live with his maternal uncle James Ward, R.A. (1769–1859). He was informally apprenticed to a carver and gilder named Thomas Hillier, who had a shop on Carnaby Street. Young Williams did become a painter, yet not a figure painter like his uncles, but a landscape painter, which, given his heritage is surprising as this was an age when landscape artists were considered inferior to figure painters. Although he never attained the fame of his uncles, he was nonetheless successful enough to enjoy a comfortable living. More important though, he fathered six sons, all artists like himself, who carried on the styles of landscape painting that he taught them, and some of whom were among the most popular landscape artists of the Victorian era.
Most of Edward Williams' life was spent in or near the artists quarter associated with Tottenham Court Road in London, until 1846 when he moved his family to 32 Castelnau Villas in rural Barnes, Surrey. There he, his wife, three of their children, and some of their grandchildren shared a large house, with a carriage house in back that became their studio. Three of his older sons eventually moved to nearby houses, some virtually next door, with only his oldest son Edward Charles Williams remaining in London. Here in Barnes, close to marshes of the Thames River, and near farm fields and wooded estates, the Williams family lived and worked in a communal artist setting. The hundreds of skillfully painted landscapes, all similar in subject and style, that flowed from their Barnes studios under the tutelage of Edward Williams gave rise to the popular attribution of the "Barnes School" of artists. However, they are most commonly referred to more simply as the "Williams family of painters".
Edward Williams between 1814 and 1855 exhibited at the Royal Academy (36 works), the British Institution (21 works), the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists (38 works), and elsewhere. He often shared venues with his sons, causing some confusion with the public who had trouble telling one Williams painting from another. He is often called "Old Williams" to distinguish him from his oldest son, and he is referred to in some of the art journals of the time as "Moonight Williams", as moonlit scenes of the Thames were one of his favourite subjects in his paintings. He was predeceased by his wife, and he is said to have never quite overcome the grief at her death. He died on 24 June 1855 at the Castelnau Villas, and is buried nearby in Barnes Cemetery.
Edward Williams was the son of the engraver Edward Williams (c.1755-1797) and Mary Ward. He married Ann Hildebrandt (c.1780-1851) on 12 February 1806 in St Pancras, London, Ann being the daughter of Frederick and Sarah Hildebrandt. They had eight children.
As Edward Williams developed his own style, he moved on to andscapes of the English countryside that, not surprisingly, hint of some of the work of his uncle George Morland. However, he became best known for moonlit scenes of boats and windmills along the Thames River, which earned him the epithet with the public of "Moonlight Williams", or simply the "moonlight painter". He rarely signed his work, perhaps but one painting in a hundred, and when he did he signed simply as E.Wms. The work of Old Williams can be difficult at times to distinguish from that of his son Edward Charles Williams, who painted in a similar style and signed his paintings E. Williams.
References Grant, Maurice Harold (1974). A Chronological History of the Old English Landscape Painters (in Oil) from the XVIth Century to the XIXth Century: Describing More than 800 Painters. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis. 724 p. in 8 vol. ISBN 9780853175902. Graves, Algernon (1884). Dictionary of artists who have exhibited works in the principal London exhibitions from 1760–1893. London: George Bell & Sons. 265 p. Ottley, Henry (1866). "Edward Williams". Biographical and critical dictionary of recent and living painters and engravers, forming a supplement to Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 184. Reynolds, Jan (1975). The Williams family of painters. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club. 331 p. ISBN 9780902028418. Wornum, R. N. (1869). "Edward Williams". Descriptive and historical catalogue of the pictures in the National Gallery: with biographical notices of the deceased painters. British school. London: National Gallery. 192 p.
Snowdon (/ˈsnoʊdən/; Welsh: Yr Wyddfa, pronounced [ər ˈʊɨ̯ðva]) is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park.
Provenance from a private collection, with a museum label verso & in collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant.
With hanging thread on the back ready for immediate home wall display.
Incredible conversation piece for your guests.
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame
High (78.5cm)
Wide (87.5 cm)
Depth thickness of frame (7 cm)
Condition report:
Condition report.
Offered in fine used condition.
Front painting surface in acceptable overall order. Some minor paint loss in places with various craquelure & foxing stains to the the canvas. Set in fine impressive fancy gilt frame which has various general wear, repairs, dust, chips losses, scratches, colour loss to the frame in places commensurate with usage & age.
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Estimated delivery time
Less than one week
Free collection available
Yes
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- Selling at Vinterior since 2017
- 100 sales
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Last updated: 24th March 2025
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