John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749-1831) was a very famous watercolourist in his day, and throughout most of his career he was regarded as an important colourist. Between 1784 and 1806 he visited Wales frequently and he became enchanted by the country. The Library’s collection contains 162 spectacular and detailed watercolour works created by the artist during his travels in Wales. The works have just been digitised and are about to be displayed on the Library’s website.
As a result of Richard Wilson’s landscapes, Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Wales, John Boydell’s line engravings and Paul Sandby’s aquatint works, Wales became a very fashionable destination for artists during the second part of the 18th century.
In John ‘Warwick’ Smith’s works we are given an illustrative record of all parts of Wales. There are paintings of Dinefwr Castle, Pembroke Castle, Carreg Cennen Castle and Caernarfon Castle to name only a few. We see parts of Wales before they felt the full effect of the industrial revolution. Works such as General distant view of Aberystwith & the bay
One of the copper mines on the Paris Mountain belonging to the Mona Company, Anglesea (JWS00202)
of Cardigan portrays Aberystwyth as a very small isolated town before the establishment of the railway that transformed the area in the 1860s.
Other works, which catches one’s eye, are his spectacular paintings of the Parys Mountain copper mines in Anglesey from 1790. The perspective of his work titled ‘One of the copper mines on the Paris Mountain belonging to the Mona Company, Anglesea’ emphasizes the mine’s danger and it’s greatness.
The collection is a precious one as John ‘Warwick’ Smith created illustrative records of areas in Wales during the last years of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century that have been completely transformed by today. The collection will be for all to see on the Digital Mirror in the next few weeks.
Morfudd Bevan-Williams