Harlech Castle across the Traeth Mawr

1800–42

Not on view

As a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Varley promoted the medium’s range and capabilities at the organization’s annual London exhibitions, while simultaneously influencing a generation of young artists as a teacher. In this scene of the Welsh coast at low tide, he uses broad, flat washes to delineate sand, water, and sky. Varley and John Cotman had developed this technique together as members of an informal sketching society beginning in 1802, and the motif of a clouded sky opening to reveal a patch of distant blue appears frequently in Varley’s watercolors made between 1805 and 1810.

Artwork Details

Title: Harlech Castle across the Traeth Mawr
Artist: John Varley (British, London 1778–1842 London)
Date: 1800–42
Medium: Watercolor with reductive techniques, over graphite
Dimensions: sheet: 5 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (14 x 23.5 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2007
Object Number: 2007.274
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Varley

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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A Practical Treatise on Perspective, Adapted for the Study of Those Who Draw from Nature, By Which the Usual Errors May Be Avoided

Multiple artists/makers

1815

A Practical Treatise on Perspective, Adapted for the Study of Those Who Draw From Nature by which the Usual Errours May be Corrected

John Varley

Fielding Lucas, Jr.

ca. 1820

Fortified entrance to a Welsh town (East gate of Caernarvon), John Varley British, Watercolor and graphite — Fortified entrance to a Welsh town (East gate of Caernarvon)
John Varley
ca. 1802

Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland, John Varley British, Watercolor and graphite with scratching out — Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland
John Varley
1827

Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape, John Varley British, Watercolor, and traces of graphite — Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape
John Varley
1812

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