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Snowdon, after an April Hailstorm [or Snowdon through Clearing Clouds]

ca. 1857
Not on view
Hunt’s reputation as an important Victorian landscape watercolorist is affirmed by this masterly depiction of Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. 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. Likely 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. His 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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Snowdon, after an April Hailstorm [or Snowdon through Clearing Clouds]
  • Artist: Alfred William Hunt (British, Liverpool 1830–1896 London)
  • Date: ca. 1857
  • Medium: Watercolor
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 13 3/8 × 19 11/16 in. (34 × 50 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.597
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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