A Bend on the Wye below Chepstow in Morning Light
A Bend on the Wye below Chepstow in Morning Light
1148
Following a visit in 1905, Chepstow Castle and nearby bends in the River Wye provided some iconic subjects in Steer's landscape art. The present work, which, perhaps surprisingly, is on a pale grey paper, is taken from near Brunel's tubular railway bridge, looking south towards the Wye estuary and confluence with the Severn, where the first Severn Bridge was much later built. To the right, we see the cliffs below Bulwark Hillfort, where the limestone of the Chepstow Castle cliffs turns to red sandstone. Here they are lit by suffused, red morning sunshine coming in over the Severn, which explains the work's overall orange colouration and even tonality.
A similarly toned work of the same view in morning sunlight was sold at auction in the United States by Stair in 2013. The present watercolour featured in exhibitions of Steer's work in the years following his death.
Dimensions:
1905
Watercolour
Inscribed "Chepstow" verso
With Charles A. Jackson, Manchester
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