Richard Wilson, The Valley of the Dee, with Chester in the Distance

Like Holt Bridge on the River Dee, the other painting from this pair, this is a view of the valley where England and Wales meet. For a long time the viewpoint of this picture was unknown, but it is probably the ‘View near Chester’ that Wilson exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1761. It was most likely painted downstream from the village of Holt in Denbighshire in North Wales, from a viewpoint five miles to the east of Gresford. The towers of Chester Cathedral and St John’s Church are just visible in the background. The hills in the distance may be in Lancashire, beyond the River Mersey. Wales is on the left of the river and England is on the right.

The style of the landscape is inspired by the work of the seventeenth-century French neoclassical painter, Claude, who depicted views of the countryside outside Rome. His paintings were very fashionable in Britain when this landscape was painted. In Wilson’s picture it is sunset, and a golden light illuminates the clouds and meadows, infusing the composition with an atmosphere of warmth and stillness. This quality of evening light was also favoured by Claude in paintings such as A Seaport.

Wilson’s trees cast long shadows over the grass and the sun is in the west, suggesting that it is the end of the day. He has made the native English oak trees in the foreground tall and slender with thin, spreading canopies like the trees of the Roman countryside that Claude paints in pictures such as Landscape with David at the Cave of Adullam.

A group of figures and a dog occupy the brow of the hill in the foreground of Wilson’s painting. A woman stands holding a baby, with a dog beside her, while two men sit on the ground. One appears to hold a stick and may be the herdsman of the cattle grazing nearby. It is as though the shepherds and nymphs commonly included in Claude’s neoclassical landscapes, such as Landscape with Goatherd and Goats, have been translated here into contemporary but timeless English country folk. The inclusion of the figures helps us to locate our own viewpoint on the scene.