Bronze Age Gold from Wales

John Brett was a London painter best known for his scenes of rural life. Early in his career he shared many of the values of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, especially their intense colour range and obsession with truth to nature. From the 1870s Brett specialised in British coastal scenes. During the summer months he cruised his yacht ‘Viking’ with his wife and seven children along the coasts of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. He made detailed geographical and botanical sketches and probably took photographs, from which landscapes were subsequently painted back in the studio. Forest Cove, now known as Aberfforest, lies to the east of Dinas head, the rocky peninsula which forms the eastern end of Fishguard Bay. Here Brett pays particular attention here to the structure of the rock formations, revealing an interest in geology. He wrote that Pembrokeshire was the ‘only one really satisfactory seaside place on the whole British coast’.