JMW Turner
Turner
travelled extensively throughout Wales during the 1820s and
1830s. He had a special fondness for sketching Welsh castles.
Alfred
Sisley
Sisley
arrived in Wales in 1897. He painted about seventeen views of the
Welsh coast, mainly at Penarth and Langland Bay. Stayed at the
Osborne Hotel on the Gower Peninsula.
Henri
Gaudier Brezska
Avant-garde
artist who lived at 29 Claude Road, Cardiff. For six months
between 1908-9 he worked as a clerk for a firm of coal
contractors. He spent his spare time sketching at the museum, the
docks and Victoria Park.
Eugene
Carriere
French
Symbolist who painted an early atmospheric view of Cardiff Docks,
which is now hanging in the Musee d'Orsay Paris.
Eric Gill
Set
up his artistic and religious community at Capel-y-ffin in the
Honddu valley in 1924. He stayed for four years along with David
Jones.
Derwent
Lees
Australian
artist who went insane. He lived in a cottage in Ffestiniog and
for a time at Chirk castle.
Rex
Whistler
Painted
huge mural of a harbour scene at Plas Newydd for the 6th Marquess
of Anglesey. The mural took four years to complete between
1936-40. Ironically the American artist died in Normandy while
serving with the Welsh Guards.
Stanley
Spencer
In
1938 Spencer stayed in Snowdon with his ex-wife Hilda and,
unusually for him, painted two landscapes.
LS Lowry
Lowry's
painting of the Six Bells Colliery is a masterpiece. The Welsh
Valleys provided fresh inspiration to his career.
Jacob
Epstein
After
the bombing of Llandaf Cathedral in WW2 Epstein was commissioned
to provide a sculpture. His huge aluminium Majestas
in mock-Byzantine style remains a breath-taking work. He
installed it in 1955.