Fortified Entrance to a Welsh Town (East Gate of Caernarvon)

John Varley

ca. 1802 · Watercolor and graphite · Drawings and Prints

Varley’s early mastery of watercolor is beautifully demonstrated in this response to the massive east gate of Caernarvon, a walled castle and town in North Wales. In 1802, the artist toured the region for a second time with his brother Cornelius. Two years later he joined the Society of Painters in Water-Colours—formed to raise the medium’s status—and may have exhibited this drawing there in 1805 as "View of Carnarvon Walls." In the first decade of the nineteenth century, the Napoleonic Wars kept British artists from traveling on the Continent and encouraged them to seek new material on their own islands.

Artist

John Varley

Date

ca. 1802

Medium

Watercolor and graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Connie Simmons and James D. Krugman, 2018