Slopes of the Glyders, Wales

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Wales Office, Gwydyr House, Whitehall

In this dramatic, semi-abstract composition by John Piper, a stark hillside rears up to the left of the painting, charred and devoid of human presence. A band of orange enlivens the gloom of the lower slopes, representing the ‘copper-coloured rocks’ that Piper noted in his frequent visits to the Glyders, a range of hills in Northern Snowdonia. This painting dates from his first visit in 1943, after which from 1945, he rented cottages in Snowdonia, visiting with his family.

Slopes of the Glyders was the result of one of Piper’s early encounters with the Welsh mountains in the early 1940s. He was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee to record the cavern inside Manod Mawr near Blaenau Ffestiniog which at the time was used to store artworks from the National Gallery and the Royal Collection. However, the commission came to nothing as the interior space was too dark to record as a subject. Nevertheless, Piper used some of his drawings to illustrate John Betjeman’s and Geoffrey Taylor’s poetry anthology, English, Scottish and Welsh Landscape (1944).  

Looking back at his recollections of his visit to Snowdonia, Piper remembered the extreme weather, the loneliness, and the sometimes oppressive character of the rocks. He reflected these experiences in the dark and stormy scenery of this work, which like many of his wartime landscapes, conveyed the sombre mood of Britain.

John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey and worked in his father’s solicitors’ firm until 1926. He later studied art in Richmond and London. Meeting Braque in Paris inspired him to make abstract art and to exhibit with the Seven and Five Society (1934–35). In 1935 Piper collaborated with Myfanwy Evans (later, his wife) on the pioneering review, ‘Axis’. He abandoned abstract art for Neo-Romanticism and during the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he recorded bomb-devastated buildings of England’s disappearing architectural heritage. A versatile artist, Piper made book illustrations, theatre designs, ceramics, stained-glass and textiles. He collaborated with Patrick Reyntiens on stained glass projects which included the baptistry window for what was then the new Coventry Cathedral, and the stained glass lantern for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Retrospectives of Piper's work were held at the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, 1973) and the Tate (1983–84).

Places

Wales, Gwynedd, Snowdonia, The Glyders

Subjects

topography, landscape C20th, mountain

Materials & Techniques

canvas, board, oil, oil painting

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Slopes of the Glyders, Wales

Date

c.1943

Medium

Oil on canvas board

Dimensions

height: 70.00 cm, width: 90.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, April 1963

Inscription

br: John Piper

Provenance

Collection of Mrs P. Watson; from whom purchased by Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in May 1963

GAC number

6051