Moses Griffith

Moses Griffith was born at Trygarn, in the parish of Bryncroes in Caernarfonshire, Wales, to a working-class family. Although he had never received formal instruction in art, he created one of the earliest visual accounts of Welsh topography. At the age of twenty-two, Griffith was employed as an illustrator by Thomas Pennant, the traveler, naturalist,  and writer. Together they traveled to Scotland, and published  A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, a literary and visual account of their expedition, in 1774, as  Their expeditions in north Wales were published as A Tour in Wales in 1778 and A Journey to Snowdon in 1781. With Pennant’s support, Griffith’s watercolors, in addition to his illustrations for Pennant’s publications, also became well known. The patronage of the Pennant family continued throughout Griffith’s life, even after Thomas Pennant’s death in 1798.