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. Working intensely and spontaneously in the mountains over this period, Piper researched rock formations and hiked for miles to draw remote views of the Welsh landscape. His notebooks recorded seeing ‘a thousand colours’ when observing the rocks in varying light and weather, clearly visible within his numerous paintings and prints of these locations. (D. Fraser Jenkins and H. Fowler Wright, The Art of John Piper, London, 2015, p. 220). Compared to Turner’s bright palette, Piper illustrated the twisted trees, roots, jagged rocks, and cliff faces with mysterious severity.

A significant work from this output was Rise of the Dovey (National Museum Wales, Cardiff) of which the present work is a direct study. While the work on paper is primarily ink, looking closer, one can spot subtle traces of colour across the looming Aran Fawddwy mountains and lake Creiglyn Dyfi, with additional colour notes hidden throughout the composition, and reflected in Piper’s masterpiece oil.

The present work was acquired directly from the artist by architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, editor of the King Penguin series of books. Pevsner, who established the 46-volume series the Buildings of England, had worked closely with Piper during the 1930s, and later commissioned him to write and illustrate the book, Romney Marsh in 1947, in which Piper shared his affection for the churches of the area.