1066 - Benjamin Williams Leader

Benjamin Williams Leader View of Tintern Abbey Oil on canvas (relined). 91 x 137 cm. Signed and dated lower left: B. W. Leader 1870. Provenance German private collection. The picturesque ruins of Tintern Abbey stand on the right bank of the River Wye in Wales, near the village of Tintern. The abbey was founded in 1131 by Walter de Clare and was the first Cistercian monastery in Wales and the second oldest in what is now Great Britain. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 during the reign of Henry VIII, monastic life at Tintern came to an end. The abbey subsequently fell into ruin until it was rediscovered as a destination for visitors at the end of the 18th century, during the Romantic era, and was visited, among others, by J. M. W. Turner and the poet William Wordsworth. Benjamin Williams Leader also visited Tintern on several occasions, the first time in the autumn of 1869. Our painting, dated 1870, is therefore among the earliest views of the abbey produced by the artist. B. W. Leader was one of the most important Victorian landscape painters, particularly renowned for his depiction of natural light effects. The amber glow of the late afternoon sun became a hallmark of his work.