Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Oil painting on slate, of Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda. The image has been painted on a piece of slate, rather than a traditional canvas. Unsigned and undated. It is believed that the work was produced by an amateur artist, possibly during the nineteenth century. The painting shows the different galleries of Penrhyn Quarry; quarrymen working on the rockface; quarrymen pushing wagons along one of the galleries; horses pulling wagons; and a group of people (including several women) visiting the quarry. At the centre of the painting is the ‘Talcen Mawr’ - a large volcanic intrusion at the quarry which was blasted away in 1895. The painting is possibly the artist’s ‘fanciful’ impression of the quarry, having seen various lithographs and paintings produced during the nineteenth century e.g. Thomas Hosmer Shepherd’s ‘Chwarel Cae Braich y Cafn, Ger Bethesda’.