A BREATHTAKING work of art depicting the splendour of the Mawddach Estuary has been purchased.

Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales has bought a significant Pre-Raphaelite painting of the north Wales landscape, thanks to support from the Art Fund and private donors.

Sandbanks on the Mawddach, Barmouth by John Ingle Lee (1863-4) is an impressive example of a Welsh landscape during the Victorian period.

Lee’s painting looks eastwards and inland from a viewpoint above Barmouth known as the ‘Panorama View’.

Surviving works by John Ingle Lee (1839-1882) are very rare, yet his art is increasingly recognised and sought after and his paintings are ambitious examples of a young Liverpool artist embracing Pre-Raphaelitism in its prime.

Andrew Renton, keeper of art, Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales said: “In the mid nineteenth century, with increasing accessibility to remote areas by train or road, Lee was one of a growing number of artist tourists leaving industrial heartlands such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham for the ‘unspoilt’ wilderness of northwest Wales.

“Many were drawn to the mountains of Snowdonia and Lee followed in the footsteps of numerous great British landscape artists and writers.

“Sandbanks on the Mawddach, Barmouth shows the continuation of that legacy at the dawn of the industrial age.”

Read the full story in this Thursday’s north editions of the Cambrian News