Early Welsh topographical watercolours tend to surface individually or in small groups and so it is gratifying to be able to offer this broad and varied collection. These paintings are the fruits of a Welsh tour undertaken by the topographical artist Edmund Becker in 1808. Becker is one of those helpful artists who carefully inscribed his paintings with their locations and the year they were painted. This adds considerably to their appeal when framed.

Edmund Becker is believed to have been a pupil of Richard Cooper the Younger (1740-1814), who was drawing master at Eton and to Princess Charlotte. Becker visited Rome in the 1780’s and later toured various parts of the British Isles including the Lake District and the Thames Valley, as well as Wales (he undertook a second Welsh tour in 1811). On these tours he made carefully composed picturesque landscape studies along classical lines in a broadly eighteenth century vein. They are drawn in pencil and ink and worked up in an assured but unlaboured manner in subtle monochrome tones.

Becker’s interests extended beyond the natural beauties of Wales. He was clearly struck by the architecture of the remote towns he visited. A number of these paintings record the streets of old Welsh towns - a world that largely disappeared before the widespread use of photography. Becker’s studies of streets in Machynlleth, Bala and Dolgellau all depict early buildings lost during Victorian rebuilding. The eighteen views of old Aberystwyth and its environs are quite exceptional and record the appearance of another Welsh town which was almost entirely rebuilt during the 19th century.

Examples of Becker’s paintings can be found in the National Library of Wales, the British Museum, and the Leeds City Art Gallery.

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