Graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 x 25 1/2 inches (40.6 x 64.8 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in brown ink, lower left: "1807 JWD. RA"; in graphite, lower left: "1807"; in graphite, lower right: "Mr. Thompson's Wire Mill"; in graphite, lower right, five lines of shorthand notes.
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.3.198
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
landscape | wire | water mill
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | Tintern | Monmouthshire | Cymru | Wales
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)
Publications:
Yale Center for British Art, Wales, New Haven, 2014, p. 20, V2519 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Tintern was the site of the first British wire mill, established by the Company of Mineral and Battery Works in 1568 for the production of iron wire. By the early nineteenth century, the region abounded with mills such as the one depicted here. Wire production in Tintern thrived due to convenient transportation along the river Wye, ample raw materials in the surrounding countryside, and waterpower provided by streams like the one seen here. Ward probably made this graphite drawing on the spot, as he has included five lines of shorthand notes in the lower right, which might be directions for future development of the drawing. He pays careful attention to the minutiae of the scene, with its crumbling walls, missing tiles, and loops of wire in the foreground, adeptly casting this industrial scene as a location of the picturesque. Gallery label for Art in Focus: Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)