Like his slightly older contemporary Thomas Creswick, whose style is comparable, Hulme began his career in Birmingham but later settled in London, moving south in 1844. The scenery of North Wales, in particular the river Llugury, inspired many of his pictures; of the forty works he showed at the Royal Academy between 1852 and 1884, no fewer than sixteen had Welsh subjects. A picture similar to the present example, possibly identifiable as In a Welsh Valley, R.A., 1880, no.252, was sold in these Rooms on 29 February 1980, lot 187.