Inspired by Turner’s phantastic portrayal
of Yorkshire’s Weathercote Cave, Piper began visiting similar mountainous
locations and cave entrances for numerous journals and publications of the
British landscape. In 1943, the War Arts Advisory Committee commissioned Piper
to document the Manod Mawr quarry in North Wales, where important works from
the Royal Academy and National Gallery were stored during the Blitz. While the
project never came to fruition, the visit developed Piper’s fascination with
geological form. Free from the misery and constrains of the war, Piper worked
intensely in the mountains over this period, researching rock formations and
hiking for miles to draw remote views of the landscape. In the present work,
Piper climbs the highest peaks in Snowdonia to record the wild, rocky landscape
of the ‘Glyderau’. The word ‘glyder’ derives from the Welsh ‘gludair’ meaning
heap of stones.