Cotman, John Sell (1782 – 1842) – Wales; Cader Idris from the Mawddach Estuary near Barmouth.

This is one of the landscapes made in the 1830s that Kitson thought were 'the true successors of his [Cotman's] earlier watercolours'. Compositionally these works certainly rely on earlier ones - in this case those made on Cotman's Welsh tours of 1800 and 1802. But the watercolours of the 1830s are works of poetry rather than topography and their aim is first and foremost to induce feeling in the viewer. Cotman's inclusion of flour paste in his watercolour at this date gives extra richness to the pigments and allows us to see how he has used his brush and worked the washes on the sheet. Further examples of these works are in the British Museum, Leeds City Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. We are grateful to Timothy Wilcox for suggesting a date for this watercolour.