Pont Aberglaslyn, North Wales

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Downing Street

This is a view of the breathtaking scenery of Aberglaslyn in Snowdonia, North Wales. The exact location is the Aberglaslyn Pass, a narrow gorge through which the river Glaslyn cuts, spanned by Pont Aberglaslyn or Aberglaslyn Bridge. In the foreground two women wash clothes, while a man fishes on the banks of the river. A figure on horseback is just seen crossing the Aberglaslyn Bridge.

An engraved view of this painting, made by J. King, was published 1795 and an aquatint print was published 1812.

John Peter Laporte was predominately a watercolour painter, but occasionally worked in oils. He became a pupil of the landscape painter John Melchior Barralet in London and first exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution in 1885. During his early career he lived in the vicinity of Soho and Tottenham Court Road, before moving to Winchester Street, near Edgware Road, in 1802, where he would remain until 1830. Laporte was a member of the Associated Artists in Water-Colours and produced several etchings as illustrations for publications, collaborating with William Frederick Wells on a series of 72 etchings after paintings by Gainsborough. He died in 1839 at his home in Upper Coleshill Street, Pimlico.

Places

Aberglaslyn Pass, Wales, Pont Aberglaslyn, Gwynedd, Snowdonia, Afon Glaslyn

Subjects

fisherman, topography, landscape C18th, landscape C19th, genre, tree, mountain, river, valley, waterfall, Welsh, man, woman, 18th century costume, basket, bridge (rural)

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

John Peter Laporte (1761 - 1839)

Title

Pont Aberglaslyn, North Wales

Date

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 39.00 cm, width: 56.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Jeremy Maas Gallery, 1965

Provenance

Collection of ‘Dr. Ley’; from whom purchased by J. S. Maas & Co. Ltd., London, on 9 December 1964; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in January 1965

GAC number

6826