Snowdon, after an April Hailstorm [or Snowdon through Clearing Clouds] ca. 1857 Alfred William Hunt Hunt’s significant reputation as a Victorian landscape watercolorist is affirmed by this masterly depiction of Mount Snowdon. We see the peak from the west, with a long ridge—Crib y Ddysgl—running to the north, storm clouds clinging to the southern flank, and light breaking through from the east. Stimulated by the fourth volume of John Ruskin’s "Modern Painters," subtitled “Of Mountain Beauty” (April 1856), Hunt worked on atmospheric landscapes in northwest Wales in 1856 and 1857. Such scenery h

Snowdon, after an April Hailstorm [or Snowdon through Clearing Clouds] ca. 1857 Alfred William Hunt Hunt’s significant reputation as a Victorian landscape watercolorist is affirmed by this masterly depiction of Mount Snowdon. We see the peak from the west, with a long ridge—Crib y Ddysgl—running to the north, storm clouds clinging to the southern flank, and light breaking through from the east. Stimulated by the fourth volume of John Ruskin’s "Modern Painters," subtitled “Of Mountain Beauty” (April 1856), Hunt worked on atmospheric landscapes in northwest Wales in 1856 and 1857. Such scenery had fascinated him since his days at the Liverpool Collegiate School, whose headmaster the Rev. William John Conybeare, was both geologist and Bible scholar. Famous predecessors such as Richard Wilson had painted Snowdon, but Hunt's treatment of changing weather conditions is unsurpassed. Veils of dark vapor dissipate at right to offer a glimpse of sun-dappled clouds, with the vista introduced in the foreground by lichen-flecked boulders that jut through golden turf. In his early maturity, Hunt typically combined sharply focused, natural detail with revelatory Snowdon, after an April Hailstorm [or Snowdon through Clearing Clouds]. Alfred William Hunt (British, Liverpool 1830–1896 London). ca. 1857. Watercolor. Drawings

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