Art Collections Online

Hundreds of Belgians took refuge in Wales during the First World War.  These included a number of well-established artists, who were invited there by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies.   De Saedeleer and his family lived at Ty’n-lôn, Rhyd-y-felin, south of Aberystwyth.  He sought inspiration in the surrounding landscape, painting it with his own distinctive style and technique. De Saedeleer enjoyed some success with these panoramas of Cardiganshire. He had selling exhibitions in 1916 and 1919 in Aberystwyth where he taught at the School of Art. Although life in Wales was a financial struggle, he wrote to a friend in 1919 'it is a lovely area here, the people are kind and the Welsh peasant puts me in mind of those in Flanders'. It was only in 1921 that he and his family finally returned home.