Bronze Age Gold from Wales

This landscape was once owned by the slate magnate Edward Douglas-Pennant (1800-1886), 1st Lord Penrhyn. He inherited the Penrhyn estate in north Wales – including the slate quarry, and castle - in 1841. Many of his paintings remain at Penrhyn Castle, near Bangor, now a property of the National Trust. The Penrhyn family estate was built on money made through enslavement, and the ownership of sugar plantations in Jamaica. The family’s elaborate art collection, including this painting, can be seen as materialistic gains of this wealth. It was painted by Adam Pynacker, a Dutch artist who visited Italy in the middle of the 17th century and was inspired by the countryside around Rome.

Pynacker was one of a group of Dutch landscape artists who visited Italy in the mid-17th century where, like Richard Wilson a century later, they were inspired by the warm light of the Roman Campagna. Collectively they are known as the Dutch Italianates. Pynacker was one of the principal exponents of this style.

Pynacker travelled in Italy from around 1645, returning to Holland by 1652. This work dates from shortly after his return and is probably a pair to Sunny Landscape with River and High Mountains, now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. The composition includes some of his favourite motifs, such as the broken tree trunk in the foreground. Technical examination has revealed that Pynacker originally intended to show cattle emerging through the archway and one cow is still faintly visible. Conservation has removed discoloured layers of varnish to reveal fully the warm tones of his Italianate light.