Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River (c. 1774): Art, History and Details

Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River (c. 1774) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Richard Wilson (British, 1714–1782).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In the distance the peak of Cader Idris is shown, while riders in the foreground descend toward the river Mawddach. Although almost all of Wilson's earlier pictures of Wales suggest some association with that country's heroic past, here the emphasis is on the pleasing beauty of the land. Another version of this picture is in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Richard Wilson was the first major British artist to specialize in landscape, a focus he pursued intently after a visit to Italy in 1750-6. The countryside around Rome, with its rich associations of ancient grandeur, inspired him to look at landscape as a source of poetry. Back in England his Italian landscapes, which appealed to his patrons (mostly English noblemen) were a great success. He then applied a similar approach to his English and Welsh scenes, treating them as vehicles for ideas and emotions.

Object facts

• Title: Cader Idris, with the Mawddach River
• Date: c. 1774
• Creator attribution: Richard Wilson (British, 1714–1782)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 105.5 x 120.5 x 7 cm (41 9/16 x 47 7/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 89.8 x 105.5 cm (35 3/8 x 41 9/16 in.)
• Collection: P - British before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1989.52

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Robertson, Bruce. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
• Baetjer, Katharine, and Michael Rosenthal. Glorious Nature: British Landscape Painting, 1750-1850. New York, NY: Hudson Hills Press, 1993.
• Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.