About this lot
Description
* John Martin (British, 1789-1854)
View of Dolbadarn Castle, North Wales
oil on panel
20.5 x 25.5cm
Provenance:
Hewson & Forster, Sheffield;
Sotheby's, London, 26th March 2004, lot 57,
The Asbjorn Lunde Foundation, Inc.
Footnote:
The construction of Dolbadarn Castle was ordered by Llywelyn the Great sometime in the early 13th century. Its strategic position above the lake of Llyn Padarn in Snowdonia allowed for considerable control over the Llanberis Pass. During the 1400s the castle fell into disuse and by the 1800s it was a ruin. Today what remains of the stone keep is widely considered the finest example of a round tower in Wales.
The dramatic and unforgiving landscape of Snowdonia, and the ancient ruins of Dolbadarn, meant that throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the site became a popular destination for painters seeking the sublime and the picturesque. Artists such as Richard Wilson, Paul Sandby, de Loutherbourg and J.M.W Turner painted here. Turner’s Dolbadarn Castle, which was completed from sketches taken on his tour of Wales in 1799, is now held in the collection of The National Library of Wales.
All proceeds from the sale of this and another eleven paintings (lots 57-68) will benefit the activities of the Asbjorn Lunde Foundation, Inc., which continues its founder’s support of research, publishing, presentation, and practice in museums and music. Throughout his long life, Mr. Lunde supported more than forty museums in his native New York, across the United States, and in Europe with loans, gifts, and funding. Mr. Lunde was a proud New Yorker with roots in Norway. He was keenly interested in nineteenth-century Scandinavian and Swiss landscape painting, Old master painting, and Asian decorative arts.
Condition report:
Framed 41 x 46cm
The painting is executed in oil on a small wooden panel. The support and paint layers are in a good, stable condition overall. The varnish is slightly yellowed but even and glossy.
Back to lot listings