View of Moel Siabod from Beddgelert, North Wales

Cornelius Varley was a scientist by profession. He painted watercolours above all for his own pleasure. Between 1800 and 1805 he produced a series of sensitive studies of nature, which he often deliberately left unfinished and devoid of detail.
Already in Varley’s own time other artists greatly admired these unconventional works, which were thus of seminal importance for English landscape art.