Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, 1740–1812, French, active in Britain (from 1771)
Title:
Snowdon from Capel Curig
Date:
1787
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
52 7/8 x 79 inches (134.3 x 200.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.49
Gallery Label:
At the Royal Academy exhibition of 1787 de Loutherbourg, a French painter who lived in England for most of his life, exhibited three views of Snowdon, of which this is one. The highest peak in Wales, Snowdon was a popular tourist destination in the eighteenth century, as it continues to be today. One of the most famous views of Snowdon was from the tiny village of Capel Curig, pictured in the right middle-ground of the painting. The group of figures in the foreground, with their simple clothing, allude to the relative poverty of the area. This social commentary might have appealed to the painting’s nineteenth-century owner James Kitson, first Baron Airedale. Kitson was head of the Airedale Foundry in Leeds, England, one of the world’s largest producers of railway locomotives. A powerful members of the Liberal party in Leeds, Kitson spearheaded numerous charities to alleviate poverty, and 4,000 working people lined the route to his memorial service. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2008
