John Petherick lived and worked in South Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century. Born in Camborne in 1788 and raised near the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, he was the son of another John Petherick, who served as an agent at the works. Benefiting in part from what Peter Lord describes as his 'insider’s eye’ - indeed, on his 1861 death certificate he is recorded as a 'manager of copper works' [1] - Petherick’s life spanned the critical transition 'from factories and fields to urban industrial sprawl.' [2] Whether he ever received formal artistic training remains uncertain. Today, he is recognised as one of the most accomplished amateur watercolourists of his generation, an evocative recorder of the hills and skies, the falling light, and the evolving natural and industrial landscapes of Glamorganshire. In Twilight at Cefn Cwsc, a man on horseback rides toward the viewer, while brick chimneys from Cefn’s ironworks gently smoke into the glowing twilight. The works at Cefn remained in operation until 1900.

Examples of Petherick’s work are held in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Most of his surviving pictures were contained in a single album of 100 watercolours, which remained in the artist’s family until its dispersal in 1989. The present watercolour, along with those in Cardiff and Aberystwyth, originates from this collection.