biginabox

Untitled Diptych of waterfall. WillIam Collins R.A. born 8/09/1788 – died 17/02/1847.
From estate of Westfa House, Felinfoel, via Richards family of Llethry Cottages, Westfa Fach, & Rhandir House.

This is not typical of Collins’ other work, apart from his trademark swooping Swallow over the surface of the pond. (see River Scene with Trees and Mountains West Northants Council).
The paintings are not listed as submissions to the R.A. annual exhibition, which suggests they may be a private commission. And they cannot be found in any searches. They have probably not been seen in public before now, having been acquired by the Richards family by the early C20th., and hung on the walls of humble estate houses ever since.
The work presents itself as an almost stereoscopic view of the same scene from different positions. In fact, the work is completely misleading. The tree has magically moved from one bank to the other. This reveals a huge degree of artistic licence in the name of symmetry, implying they were intended for decorative purposes in a rich house.
On the grand overmantle of Westfa House, they can be interpreted as a Victorian symbol for a pair of newlyweds. Possibly under the influence of Jane Nevill, wife and lifetime partner of Charles Nevill, Llanelli Copperworks master and first owner of Westfa House from its construction in the late 1840’s. But his industrial position also makes them symbolic of his mastery over nature.
The location of these falls remains a mystery. However, there is a striking resemblance to the site of the Lower Lliedi Reservoir, Built 1888, less than a mile from Westfa House.

These paintings have undoubtedly led an Upstairs – Downstairs life. At some point in the early 1930’s they found their way into the humble cottages on the Westfa Estate in Felinfoel. By 1939 they were hanging on the passage wall in my parents’ newer humble permanent home, Rhandir House, which is where they stayed until 1993, and then in storage until now.
This intriguing and rare example of a landscape diptych, is in the spirit of the apologetic nature-worship of the time, adorning the baronial manor of a mogul of the ‘Dark Satanic Mills.’ But it is not typical of Collins’ other work, apart from the trademark swooping bird over the surface of the pond. (River Scene with Trees and Mountains West Northants Council).
In fact, the work is completely misleading. It declares itself to be an almost stereoscopic view of the same scene from different positions. (The first English stereoscopic iages were produced in 1832 by Sir Charles Wheatstone ) If so, how did the tree move from the left bank to the right? This reveals a huge degree of artistic licence in the name of symmetry, implying they were intended for decorative purposes in a rich house. They would have done justice to the chimney breast of the grand south-facing drawing room of Westfa House, overseeing the Nevill Copper industry from its wellspring. It’s easy to imagine the feminine influence in this choice of interior decoration for the new house. A pair of dynamic water spirits for the newlyweds, an improvement on the usual sickly Victorian cooing Doves.
Westfa House was the imposing, hillside, riverside mansion built in the late 1840’s by the Nevill family for their eldest son Charles’ wedding in 1841. Rhandir House was one field away from Westfa with its gothic spire looming through a wall of Oak trees and the nightly cacophony of roosting crows..
Somehow these expensive objects became available for a family like ours to own. A family of smallholders and colliers. The family account of their provenance was taken for granted, that they were from the effects of Westfa during the Evans clearance in 1906, or even from the Nevill clearance in 1888. The industries of both owners (medicinal bitters and copper respectively) depended on water, in particular that of the Lliedi valley, which ran right past Charles Nevill’s new house. Half a mile downstream from a natural chokepoint in the Lliedi where a keen-eyed Victorian industrialist would have spotted the perfect site for the reservoir which was built in 1888. And where, in during his walks to survey a site for his marital home, he would have found a waterfall exactly like the one depicted by Collins, nestled in the same configuration of hills as today’s Swiss Valley Lower Reservoir. Can anyone to tell the difference?

Westfa was a proper site for the family home of a master of Welsh water, overlooking the headwaters of the river which was to quench the molten copper and tin-plate sheets in his family’s factories in thriving Llanelli downstream.
Richard Crawshay’s Cyfarthfa House oversaw his ironworks in a similar way. As depicted in Penry Williams’ painting of Cyfarthfa Rolling Mill At Night.
In that context, the two paintings seem like a statement of ownership, but the Collins is a more feminine, symbolic examination of the relationship of industry with nature, possibly the result of his marriage to the 21 year old Jane Davies in 1841. They were together for 47 years, she survived him by 6 more.
The paintings are not listed as submissions to the R.A. annual exhibition, which suggests they may be a private commission. Since Collins was a prestigious artist of his day (out-selling Turner at auction) his work would only be affordable to the rich. The Nevill family got very rich from exploiting Welsh resources, including rivers, while simultaneously destroying the landscape.

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Pair of paintings by William Collins.R.A. (1788–1847).
In family ownership throughout most of C20th, having been acquired from Westfa House at the exchange sale between the Nevill family and Gwilym Evans in 1888, or when Evans sold in 1906 .

Two female members of our family were in domestic service at the time, and like many families of the period on Llethry Road, ours were tenants of the Westfa Estate. Since the paintings were somehow available in the early C20th for a family like ours to own, I have to believe the family legend that they were from the last sale of effects at Westfa after the death of Gwilym Evans. Or were bartered in some way for work or produce. My Mother remembered them being moved to our house in 1939 from ‘Westfa Fach’, the little estate cottage opposite, rented by my great-aunt. They hung on the gloomy passage wall next to the staircase for the next fifty years.

The paintings are not listed as submissions to the R.A. annual exhibition, which suggests they may be a private commission. Since Collins was a prestigious artist of his day (out-selling Turner at auction) his work would only be affordable to the rich. The Nevill family got very rich from exploiting Welsh resources, including rivers, while simultaneously destroying the landscape.
This intriguing and rare example of a landscape diptych, almost a stereoscopic technique, is fairly typical of the apologetic nature-worship of the time, adorning the baronial manor of a mogul of the ‘Dark Satanic Mills.’ But it is not typical of Collins’ other work, apart from the trademark swooping bird over the surface of the pond. (River Scene with Trees and Mountains West Northants Council)
There seems to be more vitality and freedom than usual. Neither is it a faithful depiction of a specific location.

The River Lliedi runs alongside the site of Westfa House. Knowing the geography of the valley well, it is not impossible that the scene depicted by Collins is of the Lliedi valley, at the choke-point where the first reservoir was built in the 1880s. The scene is there now, but with the curved dam, with its Swiss turrets, and its ‘giant steps’, As an enterprising engineer, born downstream, on the banks of a Lliedi harnessed and polluted by his father’s Copperworks, Charles William Nevill (1815 – 1888 ) would have known the spot, half a mile from his new home. He would also have been impressed by the village, clustering churchless around the ‘bald’ watermill which gave the Felinfoel its name, and which was one of the oldest surviving industrial uses of the Lliedi. A proper site for the family home of a master of Welsh water, overlooking the headwaters of the river which was to quench the molten copper and tin-plate sheets in his family’s factories in thriving Llanelli downstream.
Richard Crawshay’s Cyfarthfa House oversaw his ironworks in a similar way. As depicted in Penry Williams’ painting of Cyfarthfa Rolling Mill At Night.

In that context, the two paintings seem like a statement of ownership, but with a feminine touch of his lifelong partner. In 1841 he married the 21 year old Jane Davies, who seems to have been without important county connections. They were together for 47 years, she survived him by 6 more.

WESTFA NEWS CLIPPINGS
https://newspapers.library.wales/search?rows=10&page=1&sort=score&order=desc&alt=&query=westfa&range[min]=1804-01-01T00:00:00Z&range[max]=1919-12-31T00:00:00Z

Llanelli 1920
https://maps.nls.uk/view/239291956

Nevill Family
https://elphrobfamily.com/getperson.php?personID=I1152&tree=tree080518LLANELLY LINKS

RICHARD NEVILL Jnr
https://elphrobfamily.com/getperson.php?personID=I1151&tree=tree080518

TO THE SLAVE TRADE
https://www.llanellich.org.uk/files/440-llanelli-and-its-association-with-the-slave-trade