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Welsh art is the traditions in thevisual arts associated withWales andits people. Most art found in, or connected with, Wales is essentially a regional variant of the forms and styles of the rest of theBritish Isles, a very different situation from that ofWelsh literature. The termArt in Wales is often used in the absence of a clear sense of what "Welsh art" is, and to include the very large body of work, especially inlandscape art, produced by non-Welsh artists in Wales (or with a Welsh subject) since the later 18th century.[1]
Prehistoric Wales has left a number of significant finds:Kendrick's Cave,Llandudno contained theKendrick's Cave Decorated Horse Jaw, "a decorated horse jaw which is not only the oldest known work of art from Wales but also unique among finds ofIce Age art from Europe", and is now in theBritish Museum.[2] In 2011 "faint scratchings of a speared reindeer" were found on a cave wall on theGower Peninsula which probably date to 12,000–14,000 BC, placing them among the earliest art found in Britain.[3] TheMold Gold Cape, also in the British Museum, andBanc Ty'nddôl sun-disc in theNational Museum of Wales inCardiff are likewise some of the most important British works of art from theBronze Age.
Many works ofIron AgeCeltic art have been found in Wales.[4] and the finds from the period shortly before and after the Roman conquest, which reached Wales in AD 74-8, are especially significant. Pieces of metalwork fromLlyn Cerrig Bach onAnglesey and other sites exemplify the final stages ofLa Tène style in the British Isles, and theCapel Garmon Firedog is a spectacular luxury piece ofironwork, among the finest in Europe from the period.[5] TheAbergavenny Leopard Cup, from the decades after the conquest, was found in 2003, and shows the presence of imported Roman luxury products in Wales, perhaps belonging to a soldier.[6]
In theEarly Medieval period, theCeltic Christianity of Wales participated in theInsular art of the British Isles and a number ofilluminated manuscriptspossibly of Welsh origin survive, of which the 8th centuryHereford Gospels andLichfield Gospels are the most notable. The 11th centuryRicemarch Psalter (now inDublin) is certainly Welsh, made inSt David's, and shows a late Insular style with unusualViking influence, which is also seen in surviving pieces of metalwork of that period.
There are only fragments of the architecture of the period remaining. Unlike Irishhigh cross andPictish stones, early Welsh standing stones mainly employ geometric patterns and words, rather than figure representation; however, 10th century stones represent Christ and various saints. Little metalwork survives from the early period of the 5th–9th centuries in Wales. However, archaeological sites at Dinas Powys have revealed various artifacts such aspenannular brooches and other pieces of jewellery. Similar brooches have been discovered a site at Penycorddyn-mawr, nearAbergele, dating to the 8th century. During this period, the construction ofHoly wells was also particularly commonplace in Wales.
Wales has rarely been very prosperous, and the most striking medieval architecture is military, often built by the Normans and English, especially the famous "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" andBeaumaris Castle inAnglesey, recognised asUNESCO World Heritage Sites,Caerphilly Castle and the castles of the Welsh Prince Llywelyn the Great (such asCriccieth Castle andDolbadarn Castle). There are a number of impressivemonastic ruins; Welsh medieval churches are nearly all relatively modest, including the cathedrals. They very often had wall-paintings, panel altarpieces and much other religious art, but as in the rest of Britain very little has survived.Conwy, an English garrison town with its medieval walls almost entirely intact, has a notable example of a 13th-century medieval stone town-house.
Peter Lord suggests that the Renaissance began in Wales around 1400.[7] Much of the art produced in this period was created in or for the church.Strata Florida Abbey, for example, retains some of its medieval decorated tiles.[8]
Despite the widespread destruction that took place during the Reformation and later the Commonwealth, a number of Welsh churches retain fragments of medievalstained glass. These includeAll Saints' Church, Gresford, St Michael's Church,Caerwys, St Mary's Church,Treuddyn, St Elidan's Church,Llanelidan, Church of St Mary & St Nicholas,Beaumaris, St Gwyddelan's Church,Dolwyddelan, andSt David's Cathedral.[9]
Fifteenth-century wall paintings have been uncovered in several Welsh church buildings, including St Cadoc's Church,Llancarfan,[10]St Illtyd's Church, Llantwit Major (which has a painting ofSaint Christopher believed to date from around 1400),[11] andSt Teilo's Church, Llandeilo Tal-y-bont. The latter, during its reconstruction atSt Fagans National History Museum during the 1990s, was found to contain wall paintings from several different periods, the earliest estimated as being from the first half of the fifteenth century.[12] The wall paintings at Llancarfan are said to be "beyond compare in Wales".[13]
Plas Mawr, a grand Elizabethan town-house in Conwy, built byRobert Wynn, a local man who had been English ambassador to theHoly Roman Emperor, has been extensively restored byCadw, both inside and out, to reflect its appearance when built in the second half of the sixteenth century.[14] Wales has numerous country houses from all periods after the Elizabethan, many still containing good portraits, but these were mostly painted in London or on the Continent.[15]
Within Wales,portraiture is not common in the medieval and post-medieval periods, and the Welsh nobility and gentry usually went to London or other English centres to have their portraits painted; many of these remain in Welsh collections.Katheryn of Berain,[16] who claimed Tudor ancestry and earned the nickname "Mam Gymru" ("Mother of Wales") because of her network of relationships and descendants from four marriages, was painted byAdriaen van Cronenburgh, a Dutch painter. The portrait was commissioned by her husband, SirRichard Clough, a merchant whose business caused the couple to settle briefly in Antwerp. Clough himself died before he could bring his wife toPlas Clough, the new house he had built for her, near his home town of Denbigh. This featurescrow-stepped gables in the Flemish style.[17] The arms of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre, of which Clough was a knight, are painted on a plaque, but there are no surviving contemporary portraits of Clough himself.
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (died 1570), was one of the first Welsh noblemen known to have collected paintings on a large scale. A portrait of him, dating from the 1560s, is held by theNational Museum of Wales; it is attributed toSteven van Harwijck, another Dutch artist.[18]
Later, artisan painters such asWilliam Roos andHugh Hughes began to seek portrait commissions.[19] Roos's 1835 portrait of preacherChristmas Evans is held by theNational Museum of Wales, as is Hughes' 1826 portrait ofWilliam Jenkins Rees.[20]
The best of the few Welsh artists of the 16th to 18th centuries tended to move elsewhere to work, but in the 18th century the dominance oflandscape art inEnglish art brought them motives to stay at home, and brought an influx of artists from outside to paint Welsh scenery, which was "discovered" by artists rather earlier than later landscape hotspots like the EnglishLake District and theScottish Highlands. The Welsh painterRichard Wilson (1714–1782) is arguably the first major British landscapist, but rather more notable for Italian scenes than Welsh ones, although he did paint several on visits from London.
Wilson's pupilThomas Jones (1742–1803), has a rather higher status today than in his own time, but mainly for his city scenes painted in Italy, though hisThe Bard (1774, Cardiff) is a classic work showing the emerging combination of theCeltic Revival andRomanticism.[21] He returned to live in Wales on inheriting the family estate, but largely stopped painting. For most visiting artists the main attraction was dramatic mountain scenery, in the new taste for thesublime partly stimulated byEdmund Burke'sA Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), though some earlier works were painted in Wales in this strain.[22] Early works tended to see the Welsh mountains through the prism of the 17th century Italianate "wild" landscapes ofSalvator Rosa andGaspard Dughet.[23]
By the 1770s a number of guide books had been published, including Joseph Cradock'sLetters from Snowdon (1770) andAn Account of Some of the Most Romantic Parts of North Wales (1777).Thomas Pennant wroteTour in Wales (1778) andJourney toSnowdon (1781/1783); though Welsh himself, Pennant had published aTour in Scotland first, in 1769.[24] The first of a series of British tours by another leading promoter of the picturesque,William Gilpin, wasObservations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770, but not published until 1782.Paul Sandby made his first recorded visit toWales in 1770, later (1773) touring south Wales with SirJoseph Banks, resulting in the 1775 publication ofXII Views in South Wales and a further 12 views the following year, part of a 48-plate series ofaquatints of Welsh views commissioned by Banks. This was an early example of many print series and illustrated books on Wales, often as valuable in terms of income to the artists as original works.
What might fifty years earlier have been merely regarded as inconvenience in travel could now be seen as an exciting adventure worth making the subject of a painting, as inJulius Caesar Ibbetson'sPhaeton in a Thunderstorm (1798, nowTemple Newsam, Leeds) which shows a carriage struggling up a rough mountain road. It has a label on the back by the artist, recording that the incident occurred when he was travelling in Wales with the artistJohn "Warwick" Smith and the aristocratRobert Fulke Greville.[25] Ibbetson visited Wales often, and was also one of the first artists to record the WelshIndustrial Revolution, and scenes of Welsh life.
North Wales tended to be more visited; the youngwatercolouristJohn Sell Cotman embarked on his "first extended sketching tour" in 1800, starting from Bristol then following "a well-trodden path into theWye Valley, throughBrecknockshire toLlandovery and north toAberystwyth. In Conway he joined a group of artists gathered around the amateurSir George Beaumont" perhaps meetingThomas Girtin there, and continuing toCaernarvon andLlangollen. A second trip followed in 1802; he continued to use motifs from his sketches throughout his career.[26] Other artists often in Wales in this period includedFrancis Towne, the brothersCornelius andJohn Varley and John's pupilsCopley Fielding and David Cox (for whose lifelong attachment to Wales see below). Even the caricaturistThomas Rowlandson visited withHenry Wigstead, a colleague, and they publishedRemarks on a Tour to North and South Wales, in the Year 1797, an illustrated book.[27][28]
The French Revolutionary andNapoleonic Wars made continental travel impossible for long periods, increasing the visitors to Wales and other parts of Britain. The youngJ. M. W. Turner made his first extended tour to South and mid-Wales in 1792, followed by North Wales in 1794, and a seven-week tour of Wales in 1798. He also visited Yorkshire and Scotland in the 1790s, but was unable to visit Europe until after theTreaty of Amiens in 1802, when he reached theAlps; he did not visit Italy until 1819.[29] Many of his key early works drew on his Welsh travels, although they were painted back in London. His "first large classicising watercolour, aClaudeian view ofCaernarvon Castle at sunset" was exhibited at theRoyal Academy in 1799, along with an oil of the same subject, and the next year he showed another view of the castle, this time with small foreground figures of "abard singing to his followers of the destruction of Welsh civilization by the invading armies ofEdward I", another Claudeian formula that he was to repeat many times in major works for the rest of his career, and was arguably the first large "exhibition watercolour", reaching into the realm ofhistory painting.[30]
It remained difficult for artists relying on the Welsh market to support themselves until well into the 20th century. The 1851 census records only 136 people describing their occupation as "artist" out of a population of 945,000, with a further 50 engaged infine arts-related occupations such asengraving.[31] AnAct of Parliament in 1857 provided for the establishment of a number of art schools throughout the United Kingdom, and theCardiff School of Art opened in 1865. Prior to that the annual report for 1855 of the governmentScience and Art Department shows a list of the larger type of Art School in many British cities, but none in Wales.[32] Under a recently introduced new system "Local Schools of Art" had been established in 1853 inLlanelly andMerthyr, but had already closed; those inSwansea andCarmarthen continued, andFlint had applied to establish a school. There were "Drawing Schools" inAberdare andBangor, but apparently nothing at all in Cardiff.[33] However all these pre-1857 schools, except perhaps Swansea, were mainly teaching school age children, usually in their normal schools, and training in industrial design or teacher-training under the elementary stages of the "South Kensington system".[34]
Graduates of the new fine arts Welsh colleges still very often had to leave Wales to work. Established artists continued to move in the opposite direction, at least for the summer.David Cox was an English 19th century landscapist who spent much time in Wales, for many years spending the summer based inBetws-y-Coed, a popular centre for artists, including the EnglishHenry Clarence Whaite and the GermanHubert von Herkomer, one of whose wives was Welsh. Landscape continued to be the main focus, although the Welsh artistCharles William Mansel Lewis was among those who painted common working people, with varying measures of realism or picturesqueness. The "Betws-y-Coed artist's colony" was one of the groups forming theRoyal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1881; this was always a group for exhibiting rather than a teaching institution, based in Conwy, until 1994 in Plas Mawr (see above).[35]
The sculptorsJohn Evan Thomas (1810–1873) and Sir WilliamGoscombe John (1860–1952) made many works for Welsh commissions, although they had settled in London. EvenChristopher Williams (1873–1934), whose subjects were mostly resolutely Welsh, was based in London.Thomas E. Stephens (1886–1966) andAndrew Vicari (b. 1938) had very successful careers as portraitists based respectively in the United States and France. SirFrank Brangwyn was Welsh by origin, but spent little time in Wales.
Perhaps the most famous Welsh-born painters wereAugustus John and his sisterGwen John, though they mostly lived in London and Paris; however the landscapists SirKyffin Williams (1918–2006) andPeter Prendergast (1946–2007) remained living in Wales for most of their lives, though well in touch with the wider art world.Ceri Richards was very engaged in the Welsh art scene as a teacher in Cardiff, and even after moving to London; he was a figurative painter in international styles includingSurrealism. Various artists have moved to Wales, usually the countryside, though paintings ofCardiff of around 1893–97 by the American artistLionel Walden are in museums in Cardiff and Paris.[36] These includedEric Gill, whose colony included for his most artistically productive period (1924–1927) the London-born WelshmanDavid Jones, and the sculptorJonah Jones.The Kardomah Gang was an intellectual circle centred on the poetDylan Thomas and poet and artistVernon Watkins in Swansea, which also included the painterAlfred Janes; the eponymous cafe was destroyed by a German bomb in 1941.
The situation gradually improved after World War II, with the appearance of new art groups.The South Wales Group was established in 1948 (and continues today asThe Welsh Group with membership from across Wales).[37][38][39][40] The group's initial conception was in response to theRoyal Cambrian Academy's relatively weak representation fromsouth Wales at the time. In 1956 when theSouth Wales Group failed to become a southern Academy, the56 Group Wales also emerged,[41] with the aim of promoting modern Welsh art beyond Wales' borders.[42]Also in the industrial valleys theDowlais Settlement, delivering art classes and activities was established in the 1940s by artists includingHeinz Koppel andArthur Giardelli and theRhondda Group was formed in the 1950s, a loose group of art students whose most notable member wasErnest Zobole, whose expressionist work was deeply rooted in the juxtaposition of the industrialised buildings of the valleys set against the green hills that surround them.[43] In the 1970s, Paul Davies formedBeca, a radical Welsh group whose founding was in part a reaction to the drowning ofCapel Celyn.[44] Beca used a mixture of artistic expression, including installation, painting, sculpture and performance, engaging with language, environmental and land rights issues.[45]
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South Wales had several notable potteries in the late 18th and 19th centuries, beginning with theCambrian Pottery (1764–1870, also known as "Swansea pottery") and includingNantgarw Pottery near Cardiff, which was in operation from 1813 to 1822 making fineporcelain, usually painted to a very high standard with flowers, and then utilitarian pottery until 1920.Portmeirion Pottery (from 1961) has never in fact been made in Wales.
Despite the fact that considerable quantities ofsilver (in association withlead), and much smaller amounts ofgold, were mined in Wales, there was little silversmithing in Wales in the Early Modern period. It did not help that the Crown gave itself ownership of mines ofprecious metals, which were largely used for minting currency, some of which was marked with thePrince of Wales's feathers to show its origin. The Welsh gentry mostly had their silver made in English cities.
TheArts and Crafts movement (c. 1880–1920), with its devotion to the local, gave spark to the development of conceptually independent and identifiable Welsh art. Two elements of the movement were particularly amenable to the Welsh arts situation. First, the movement aspired to elevate theapplied arts (pottery,furniture, etcetera) to the status offine art.[46] Second, the development ofRomantic nationalism, which drew from the Arts and Crafts Movement via its "advocacy of indigenous design, traditional ways of making objects, and the use of local materials."[47]
In Wales, at least until World War I, a genuine craft tradition still existed. Local materials, stone or clay, continued to be used as a matter of course.[48] Horace W. Elliot, an English gallery owner, visited theEwenny Pottery (which dated back to the 17th century) in 1885, to both find local pieces and encourage a style compatible with the movement.[49] The pieces he brought back to London for the next twenty years revivified interest in Welsh pottery. The heavysalt glazes used for generations by local craftsmen had gone out of fashion, but the Arts and Crafts Movement brought new appreciation to their work.
A key promoter of the Arts and Crafts movement in Wales wasOwen Morgan Edwards. Edwards was a reforming politician dedicated to renewing Welsh pride by exposing its people to their own language and history. For Edwards, "There is nothing that Wales requires more than an education in the arts and crafts."[50]—though Edwards was more inclined to resurrecting Welsh Nationalism than admiring glazes or rustic integrity.[51]
In architecture,Clough Williams-Ellis sought to renew interest in ancient building, reviving "rammed earth" orpisé[2]Archived 2015-12-22 at theWayback Machine construction in Britain. In 1925, In 1925 he began "his most famous creation, the village of Portmeirion, Merioneth, Wales, a Picturesque composition of individual buildings incorporating Classical details, salvaged fragments, and vernacular elements."[52] His daughter,Susan Williams-Ellis, would found thePortmeirion Pottery in the next generation (although none of this was ever made in Wales).
Today Welsh and Wales based artists, including members ofThe Welsh Group, the56 Group Wales, theRoyal Cambrian Academy and artists not affiliated with any particular group, provide a variedcontemporary tapestry of art across Wales. From theAbstract Art of Brendan Stuart Burns[53] orMartyn Jones, to the expressive, modern figurative art ofShani Rhys James orClive Hicks-Jenkins, from the politically charged work ofIwan Bala orIvor Davies to thePop Art ofKen Elias. The contemporary art of Wales is noted perhaps more for its variety, rather than having a single set agenda. However, perhaps due to market forces or the inspirational shapes and changing light, the Welsh landscape is still particularly well represented in commercial galleries throughout Wales and beyond, either through the expressive, almost abstract, techniques used by artists likeDavid Tress or the more traditional approaches used by others likeRob Piercy.
Conceptual art is represented in Wales with a number of successful artists includingBedwyr Williams andDavid Garner together with performance artists like the group TRACE,[54][55] creating and showing work in Wales and beyond. A number of Welsh galleries focus on conceptual art, with the most significant perhaps beingMostyn[56] in north Wales andChapter Arts Centre andg|39[57] in south Wales. The Gold Medal at 'Y Lle Celf' in theNational Eisteddfod of Wales has seen a notable trend towards more conceptual approaches over the last ten or so years, withInstallation work being the usual focal point.[58] The 2003 development of the Artes Mundi prize and Wales's presence at the Venice Biennale has strengthened the country's international reputation forConceptual andInstallation art.
Since 2003 theArtes Mundi biennial art prize has been held at theNational Museum Cardiff. The prize is the biggest art prize in theUnited Kingdom with £40,000 for each year's winner.[59] Though the prize has included artists who use traditional media, like paint, this is usually only part of their practice, with the focus being very much on conceptual approaches. Though the exhibition takes place in Cardiff, the focus is on international artists,[60][61][62] with Tim Davies from Pembrokeshire[63] andCornwall born Sue Williams[64] being the only Wales based artists to have featured to date.
Also adding to the international flavour in 2003, Wales took part in theVenice Biennale with its own pavilion[65][66] and has continued to do so ever since, showing work by conceptual Welsh artists includingJohn Cale in 2009,[67] Tim Davies in 2011[68] andBedwyr Williams in 2013.[69]
| Part ofa series on the |
| Culture of Wales |
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| People |
Traditions |
| Art |
Monuments |
A selected list; for many more, seeCategory:Welsh artists orList of Welsh artists
Alan Torjussen, "A Wales Art Collection – Casgliad Celf Cymru", bilingual art education project for schools and adults (A3 cards, A6 cards, CD Rom), Genesis 2014,ISBN 978-0-9535202-7-5 etc.
Alan Torjussen, "Teaching Art in Wales – Dysgu Celf yng Nghymru", bilingual art education project for schools and adults (A3 cards, teachers book, videos), Genesis & University of Wales Press 1997
| Overviews and lists | |
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| Celtic | |
| Regional | |
| Lists of public art by county | |
| Art schools | |
| Groups and collectives | |
| Art museums and galleries |
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| Photography galleries | |
| Awards | |
| Organisations and bodies | |
