Llyn Idwal, Snowdonia, Antique Steel Engraving after E.M. Wimperis, circa 1876

About this sheet

A dark mountain lake beneath a great amphitheater of cliffs. The still water fills the whole lower part of the picture, reflecting a band of light where the sun breaks through. Behind it the mountain wall rises steeply, its rock faces scored by gullies and cut through the center by a deep, shadowed cleft, while a thin white stream falls down the slope at the right of center. A low green spur reaches into the lake at the right, with a few sheep grazing on it, and white birds wheel across the dark face of the cliffs at the left. Heavy clouds hang over the summit.

Llyn Idwal lies in a glacial hollow below the Glyderau range in Snowdonia, North Wales, and has long been one of the most dramatic sights of the Welsh mountains. The lettering credits E.M. Wimperis as the painter and C.G. Lewis as the engraver; Edmund Morison Wimperis was an English landscape painter known especially for his watercolors. The title is engraved in script, with the imprint Cassell, Petter and Galpin, the London publisher, beneath.

This is a steel engraving with an unusually sober, powerful tonality. The engraver lays dense, dark lines across the cliffs to convey their mass and shadow, saving the brightest paper for the streak of light on the water and the falling stream.

Hikers and lovers of Wales will value this view; its dark tones look striking in a pale wood frame with a white mat, in a study or a hallway.

Condition: Light age toning; light handling soiling along the edges and a few small spots in the margins. Light creasing along the lower edge. Printed image clean.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.