This highly finished watercolour is considered one of Alfred Hunt's finest Welsh works. It shows the hollowed upper end of Cwm Tryfan, a glaciated valley on the northern side of the Glyderau near Capel Curig in Eryri. The view is taken from the upper reaches of Nant Gwern y Gof, looking towards the south-west, with the peak of Glyder Fach, with its steep ridge, appearing through the mist on the horizon, and the flank of Tryfan showing on the right. Hunt visited north Wales in 1855 and returned in 1856 and 1857. He wrote, ‘I am in the land of damp – and of fog and mist... we have had nothing but rain … – now the weather is holding up for a time, but the cold (in Cwm Trifaen) is unendurable ...’ Hunt has a particular interest in mountain subject and geological structures, both of which are well illustrated in this picture. He has observed the landscape with his usual meticulous and intense style.
