Welsh Art News
AUTUMN 2007

A Selection of Welsh Landscapes

The website has been updated with an interesting group of Welsh landscapes spanning some 150 years. Due to the historic draw of Snowdonia, views of north Wales have always outnumbered those of the south by a very substantial margin. Consequently, it is gratifying to be able to offer both the rare and early view of Abergavenny (1842) by the Irish painter Henry Kirchoffer, and the imposing view of the ruins of the great Tudor house at Llantwit Major in Glamorgan by William Pascoe (1850). Also from south Wales is the charming genre painting of The Welsh Pedlar (1858) by W. R. B. Shaw, an artist who is recorded living in Tredegar in the middle of the 19th century. This painting has an original inscription verso with the name and address of the original owner from that town.

Moving north, J. B. Robinson’s 1927 view on the Dyfi is a classic piece of ‘modern British’ landscape painting by a rare painter who was a friend of D. H. Lawrence and studied with him at Nottingham university. Thomas Huson’s view of Harlech Castle with Snowdon beyond is a particularly well observed vision of one of the most picturesque of Welsh castles.

Finally, I am delighted to be able to offer two further works by the late Rowena Wyn Jones - a Welsh painter certainly deserving of wider recognition. Born in Llanberis in 1916, she trained with, and was a friend of, Kyffin Williams whose influence is clearly visible in her work. Like Kyffin, Rowena Wyn Jones drew inspiration from the wild landscapes of her native country. Many of her paintings depict the mountains and coast of Caernarfonshire and Anglesey. Her work was acclaimed during her own lifetime and she exhibited both locally and internationally. In the 1970’s she exhibited in Paris where she was awarded by the French Artists Society in recognition of the high standard of her work. The two landscapes offered here depict Tryfan, one of the most celebrated peaks of the Snowdonian range. This mountain was used as Sir Edmund Hilary’s main training ground prior to his team’s successful attempt on Mount Everest in 1953. Rowena Wyn Jones’s style is perhaps best compared to another of her contemporaries in north Wales, Charles Wyatt Warren. However, she paints on a much larger scale. Warren’s prices are rising steadily whereas I believe Jones’s work still represents excellent value.

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New Book
The Life and Works of William Parry A.R.A. (1743-1791)

I am now in the final stages of editing the text for the first book about one of the most important pre-20th century Welsh painters. The volume begins with a 14 chapter survey of Parry’s working life and concludes with an in-depth Catalogue of all his known pictures. The book is much more substantial than I initially envisaged and consequently it has taken longer to finish. I hope to have the final text with Cambrian Printers of Aberystwyth soon after I return from my honeymoon in early October. All being well the book should be available a month or so later. Further notices will be sent out in due course.