This beautiful mid-19th-century landscape by British artist John Syer RI (1815-1885) depicts a group of travellers gathered beside a timber cart amid the mountains of North Wales. It's traditionally identified as a view near the foot of Snowdon.

Syer knew this part of Wales particularly well. North Wales was his favourite sketching ground and, of the 19 paintings he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1846 and 1875, ten depicted Welsh subjects. He became closely associated with the community of landscape painters working around Betws-y-Coed and was remembered among the select group who regularly gathered there with the great landscape painter David Cox.

Here, a rocky track passes through open moorland beneath an extraordinary panorama of mountains. A stream tumbles between boulders on the right, while a handful of isolated cottages appear in the distance. Beyond them, successive ridges rise towards the clouds, their enormous scale emphasised by everything happening below.

But Syer hasn't given us an empty landscape. A wooden cart loaded heavily with timber has stopped beside the track. Two figures sit casually among the logs while several others have gathered alongside. Perhaps they're resting, talking or simply pausing during the journey.

Syer returned repeatedly to North Wales throughout his career, fascinated by a landscape that was continually changing around him. Mountains disappeared into mist, sunlight travelled across their slopes and streams altered character according to the weather. What interested him was not simply the shape of a mountain, but the sensation of experiencing it.

That quality is particularly evident here. Sunlight catches the ochres, greens and purples of the foreground before cooler blue-grey tones carry us into the mountains. Higher still, cloud drifts across the distant peaks, partially obscuring them. The landscape feels enormous, but never static. In another hour it could look completely different. It's easy to understand why he kept coming back.

Syer exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Society of British Artists, and became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. 

Signed/partially dated in the lower left and held within a later gilt frame.

Learn more about John Syer RI in our directory.

Medium: Oil on canvas laid on board
Overall size: 46½” x 32” /118 cm x 82cm
Year of creation: 1860
Provenance: Private collection, UK.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Frame in excellent condition. 
Artist’s auction maximum: £18,866 achieved in 2024 for ‘Salmon Trap on the Conway’.
Our reference: BRV2346