Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Caernarfon Castle hovers in the distance, bathed in the silvery light of this classical landscape. Tall trees and the wide river structure the scene, following the principles of Claude Lorrain. Birds and grazing animals animate the rocky foreground. Copley Fielding visited Wales several times. Probably based upon sketches made during a visit to North Wales in 1815, it was exhibited at the British Institution in 1819. He worked mainly in watercolour, but painted several other large oils around the same time as this. Fielding was President of the Society of Painters in Watercolours from 1831 until his death. Between 1812 and 1820 he executed several large oil landscapes including the present work.