Art in Italy 1500-1700: The Renaissance 28 September 2010 Cima da Conegliano (1459 - 1517), Virgin and Child, oil on board, about 1500, Purchased, 1977, NMW A 240 Workshop of Alessandro Botticelli (1447 - 1510), Virgin adoring the Child with the young St John the Baptist, oil on board, bequeathed by Gwendoline Davies, 1951, NMW A 241 Amico Aspertini (c.1474 - 1552), Virgin and Child between Saint Helena and St Francis, oil on panel, purchased 1986, NMW A 239 Nicolas Poussin (1594 - 1665), The Finding of Moses, 1651, oil on canvas, Purchase jointly with the National Gallery, London, with assistance of National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund, 1988, NMW A 1 Claude Gellée, Le Lorrain (1600 - 1682), Landscape with St Philip Baptising the Eunuch, 1678, oil on canvas, purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund 1982, NMW A 4 In the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, Italian scholars and artists developed a fresh interest in the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. Architects and artists tried to recreate and improve on the ancient world, using a classical style for buildings and decoration, pictures and sculpture. Today this period is known as the Renaissance ('rebirth'). The heart of the Renaissance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was Florence, the financial hub of Europe, and the most prosperous city in Italy. Supported by the Medici and other leading families, the arts flourished. The Renaissance soon developed in Italy's other city states, both major cities like Venice and Milan in the north and smaller ones like Mantua and Urbino. From the late fifteenth century, Florentine artists like Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael worked in the Vatican in Rome for a series of Popes. From the early sixteenth century Renaissance ideas spread to the rest of Europe, especially to France, the Netherlands and Germany, and later to Britain. Artists travelled abroad seeking work and sharing ideas, while the new technology of printing helped styles spread quickly. Style and Symbolism Artists of the Renaissance drew their inspiration from the art of classical Greece and Rome. They also tried to improve upon it, for example by perfecting the new system of linear perspective. Painted portraits and altarpieces, carved and cast statues, all show how artists studied the sculpture, gemstones, coins and medals of the ancient world. Architects used features from ancient Roman buildings — columns, arches, domes — in adventurous new ways. A wide range of everyday objects, from necklaces to wine cups, was produced to give a classical flavour to the lives of the wealthy. These were decorated with motifs taken from ancient sources. The educated élite of the Renaissance acquired works of art to symbolize social and cultural virtues inherited by them from the ancient world. They displayed modern craftsmanship — maiolica pottery, glass, pictures, bronze figures and medallions — alongside classical antiquities. Classical references in the subject matter and decoration were highly prized, as were sophisticated design and skilful use of materials. Later in the sixteenth century an exaggerated style known as Mannerism developed. From about 1600, the more dramatic and emotional Baroque style emerged, well suited to promote the religious themes of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Northern Landscape Artists in Rome The Renaissance sparked a growing appreciation and interest in the natural world. Landscapes were often used as backgrounds for religious paintings. During the sixteenth century landscape painting gradually became more acceptable as an independent art form. In the seventeenth century landscapes became increasingly popular, although classical or biblical stories were still often included in the foreground. Artists from all over Europe flocked to Rome in the seventeenth century, attracted by the beauty of the Roman countryside and its classical ruins. These artists developed the classical landscape style. The French artists Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin painted figures in serene landscape settings. They depicted nature as calm and idyllic, with every tree and rock carefully placed to create a balanced, idealized whole. How did these works of art come to Wales? A few European paintings are known to have been in Welsh homes by the second half of the seventeenth century. By the 1770s art collecting was an accepted aristocratic pastime. Welsh landowners like Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn acquired Italian, French and Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century. They also bought classical antiquities and commissioned work from foreign artists. Wales's nineteenth-century industrialization created new fortunes and new art collectors, among them Gwendoline and Margaret Davies , best known for their Impressionist paintings; and saw a new interest in earlier Renaissance art. Some of the Old Master paintings in Amgueddfa Cymru once hung in Welsh country houses. Others were given to the Museum by Welsh collectors, and they tell a fascinating story of how art has been appreciated in Wales over many generations.
From Industry to Impressionism – what two sisters did for Wales 1 January 2009 Gwendoline Davies (1882-1951)Known as Gwen, the elder, more determined and thoughtful sister, and an accomplished musician. Margaret Davies (1884-1963)Known as Daisy, the younger, more practical sister, and a fine painter and engraver. Gregynog Hall David Davies (1818-1890) This image shows him in a rare moment of repose. Private collection (Lord Davies) 'The Loan Exhibition of Paintings' held in the temporary national museum in Cardiff City Hall in 1913. Gwendoline (1882–1951) and Margaret Davies (1884–1963), two sisters from mid-Wales, were among the first people in Britain to collect French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. They bequeathed their magnificent art collection to Amgueddfa Cymru, completely transforming the range and quality of Wales’s national art collection.The Davies sisters were the greatest benefactors of the Museum’s first hundred years. Their idealism and generosity had a remarkable impact generally on cultural and intellectual life in Wales and is still with us today.The industrial legacy of David DaviesGwendoline and Margaret were the granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 19th century. He built much of the railway system in mid-Wales and was a pioneer of the coal industry in south Wales.David Davies created a massive fortune. After his death in 1890, his son Edward succeeded him. In turn, Gwendoline, Margaret and their brother David, later 1st Lord Davies, inherited the estate.Their upbringing and childhoodThe sisters had a childhood dominated by the strict religious beliefs of Calvinistic Methodism. They were taught that it was their Christian duty to use well the great wealth they would inherit.After a good and progressive education, they developed a passion for the arts and music. Art history was in its infancy in Britain, so the sisters travelled widely in Europe, studying art in Germany and Italy before beginning their art collecting.Their sophisticated knowledge of art history was unusual for women of this period and their background.Beginning the collectionIn 1908, the sisters began collecting art in earnest. Their early purchases included landscapes by Corot, peasant scenes by Millet and also Turner’s The Storm and Morning after the Storm.In the first six years of collecting, they amassed nearly a hundred paintings and sculptures. Their early taste was quite traditional, but in 1912 they turned to buying Impressionism.ImpressionismTheir Impressionist purchases were generally less expensive than the works they had been acquiring by artists such as Turner and Corot.In 1913, Gwendoline acquired her most important painting, La Parisienne, for £5,000.The impact of the First World WarThe War transformed the lives of Gwendoline and Margaret. They worked as volunteers with the Red Cross in France. However, they still managed to add to their collection during these years. They bought works by Daumier, Carrière, Renoir, Manet and Monet. In 1916 Gwendoline Davies also spent £2,350 on ten oil paintings and a drawing by Augustus John.In 1918, Gwendoline bought her two celebrated landscapes by Cézanne, The François Zola Dam and Provençal Landscape, which are among her most important and visionary purchases.Collecting after the First Word WarIn 1920, Gwendoline acquired perhaps her finest works, Cézanne’s Still-Life with Teapot for £2,000 and Van Gogh’s Rain – Auvers for £2,020.They also spent large sums on Old Masters, including Botticelli’s Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate.Then their collecting suddenly reduced. Gwendoline wrote in 1921 that they could not continue to purchase so much ‘in the face of the appalling need everywhere’.They still spent over £2,000 on Turner’s Beacon Light in 1922 and £6,000 on a Workshop of El Greco Disrobing of Christ in 1923. In 1926, Gwendoline stopped collecting altogether.Gregynog: a centre for the arts, music and craftsThe Davies sisters championed many social, economic, educational and cultural initiatives in Wales during the 1920s and 1930s.In 1920, they bought Gregynog Hall, which they established as a centre for music and the arts in Wales. They also set up the Gregynog Press in 1922, which produced some of the finest books ever illustrated in Britain between the two world wars. Gregynog Hall complemented the Arts and Crafts Museum the sisters had already helped create at Aberystwyth.Gregynog hosted the popular Festivals of Music and Poetry up until the outbreak of war in 1939, when the sisters again turned their attention to the war effort.The end of an eraWhen Gwendoline died in 1951 Margaret kept up such activities as she was able to during her final years. However, without Gwendoline, its ‘chief creator and inspirer’, Gregynog’s heyday was never to be revived. In the year before she died, Margaret gave the house and its grounds to the University of Wales for use as a residential conference centre.From personal to public collectionIn October 1951, Amgueddfa Cymru announced the arrival of ‘the late Miss Gwendoline Davies’ bequest. This was one of the most valuable donations in recent years to any public collection in Britain.Margaret continued to collect art until just before her death in 1963, focusing on work by modern British artists, many of whom were Welsh. Her works were also destined for the Museum and many of her later acquisitions were made with the Museum in mind.In 1963 Margaret’s bequest of 152 objects joined that of Gwendoline. Together, the sisters’ collections completely transformed the Welsh national art collection.A guide to the paintings Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796–1875), Castel Gandolfo, dancing Tyrolean shepherds by Lake Albano, oil on canvas, 1855–60 In 1909 Gwendoline paid £6,350 for this painting, described at the time as one of Corot’s masterpieces. Earlier that year, Margaret recorded seeing ‘several charming pictures by Corot’ at the Louvre.Amgueddfa Cymru, Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1951) NMW A 2443 Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), The Goose Girl at Gruchy, oil on canvas, 1854–6 Gwendoline and Margaret Davies bought a number of works by Barbizon School artists in the early years of their collecting. Millet was one of the sisters’ favourites.Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1951) NMW A 2479 J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851), The Morning after the Storm, oil on canvas, about 1840–5 Gwendoline purchased this work in November 1908 for £8,085, while Margaret acquired its companion The Storm. Both paintings were apparently inspired by the great storm of 21 November 1840.Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1952) NMW A 434. Claude Monet (1840–1926), San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight, oil on canvas, 1908 The sisters visited Venice in 1908 and 1909. The subject is the Palladian church of San Giorgio Maggiore, shown as a purple silhouette at twilight. Gwendoline acquired this work for £1,000 in October 1912.Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1951) NMW A 2485.
The industrial legacy of David Davies 29 July 2007 David Davies (1818-1890) This image shows him in a rare moment of repose. Private collection (Lord Davies) The completed Talerddig cutting, the deepest in the world at that time. Private Collection (Lord Davies) No.1 dock in 1913, when Barry docks exported 11m tons of coal. What appears to be a solid level surface in the right foreground of this scene in is fact water — thick with coal dust. David Davies of Llandinam The gifts and bequests of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies completely transformed the range and quality of Wales's national art collection. The sisters were the granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam, one of the great entrepreneurs of 19th–century Wales. Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were the granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam, one of the great entrepreneurs of 19th–century Wales. David Davies started in life as a tenant farmer and sawyer. He made his fortune during the industrialisation of Victorian Wales. He built much of the railway system in mid-Wales, became a pioneer of the coal industry in the Rhondda valley and was the driving force behind the construction of Barry dock in south Wales. Railways Starting with the construction of the Newtown & Llanidloes Railway in 1859, he became involved in the construction of a number of railways in mid-Wales, the Vale of Clwyd and Pembrokeshire. His greatest achievement as a railway engineer was the great Talerddig cutting on the Newtown & Machynlleth Railway, completed in 1862 and the deepest in the world at that time. Not all the ventures in which Davies was involved succeeded — the grandly named Manchester & Milford Railway reached neither destination! Coal – 'Davies yr Ocean' 1864 marked a decisive turning point in David Davies's career when he took out a pioneering mineral lease in the south Wales valleys. It took two years before the first pits were in full production. Five more collieries were opened by 1886. In the following year they were vested in a new public limited company, the Ocean Coal Co. Ltd. At the time of Davies's death in 1890, it was the largest and most profitable coal company in south Wales. From pit to port The crowning achievement of David Davies's career was the construction of the dock at Barry, south Wales. Davies and a number of fellow Rhondda colliery owners came together to solve congestion both on the Taff Vale Railway and at Cardiff's Bute docks. They promoted the construction of a railway from the coalfield to a new dock facility at Barry, then a tiny hamlet. Despite fierce opposition from the Bute faction, the dock opened in 1889. The application of wealth David Davies was a passionate supporter of Calvinistic Methodism — a strict non-conformist faith unique to Wales and distinct from Wesleyan Methodism. Like all of Gwendoline and Margaret's family he was a life-long Sabbatarian and teetotaller. It instilled in him a profound sense of philanthropy and public service. He gave generously to religious and educational causes. Having received a very basic schooling himself, the provision of university education in Wales was a cause close to his heart. He was a staunch supporter of the first college at Aberystwyth, opened in 1872. He served as Liberal MP for Cardigan Boroughs during 1874-86 and was elected to the first Montgomeryshire County Council upon its creation in 1889. After David Davies David Davies died in 1890 and was succeeded by his son Edward, who found the stresses of running the business empire so overwhelming that he died just eight years later. He in turn was succeeded by Gwendoline and Margaret's brother David, later 1st Lord Davies, who had to contend with the depression of the inter-war years. The post-war nationalisation of the coal, dock and railway industries saw the family lose control of their vast undertaking. Today, all the Ocean pits have closed, as has much of the railway system created by David Davies, and Barry dock sees little activity.
The Davies Sisters during the First World War 29 July 2007 Gwendoline Davies visited the damaged and largely empty French city of Verdun on 9 and 10 March 1917, where she acquired this postcard image as a souvenir. Private collection (Lord Davies) The First World War had a profound effect on the lives of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, two sisters from mid Wales whose gifts and bequests completely transformed the range and quality of Wales's national art collection. They lost much-loved relatives and served with the Red Cross in France, seeing the destruction first hand. They were deeply conscious of the horrors experienced by both British and French soldiers, and shocked at the suffering of civilian refugees. While their brother David flung himself into the cause of international peace, the sisters hoped to repair the lives of ex-soldiers traumatized by the war, through education in the crafts and through music. Out of this grew the idea of Gregynog, as a centre for the arts, and for the discussion of social problems. Bringing Refugee Artists to Wales On 4 August 1914 Germany invaded Belgium, precipitating the First World War. Over a million Belgians fled their homes. The Davies family decided that Belgian artists should be brought to Wales, where they could work in safety, and inspire the country's art students. Major Burdon-Evans, their agent, and their friend Thomas Jones journeyed to Belgium where they assembled a group of ninety-one refugees, including the sculptor George Minne, and the painters Valerius de Saedeleer and Gustave van de Woestyne and their families. All three artists were to spend the rest of the war as refugees, largely dependent on the Davies family for support. While their impact on the arts in Wales was limited, the work of all three was to be profoundly influenced by their Welsh exile. The Sisters in France, 1916–1918 Initially the sisters undertook charitable work at home in connection with the war. They were keen to do more 'in the way of helping', but few women managed to go out to France. One way of doing so was to volunteer through the London Committee of the French Red Cross. There was little provision in the French army for the welfare of the ordinary soldier, and the Committee sent women to operate canteens at railway stations, hospitals and transit camps. In July 1916 Gwendoline was posted to a transit camp near Troyes. Margaret joined the canteen there in June 1917, and her journals record their lives at this period. The sisters were deeply moved by the stoicism of the ordinary soldiers of the French army and by the suffering of exhausted, sick, and hungry refugees. Wartime collecting The sisters sometimes managed to add to their art collection during the First World War. Although wartime travel in France was difficult, trips to Paris on Red Cross business provided Gwendoline with opportunities to visit the Bernheim-Jeune gallery. She bought a Daumier and a Carrière there in April 1917, and paintings by Renoir, Manet and Monet in December. In February 1918 she bought her two celebrated landscapes by Cézanne, The François Zola Dam and Provençal Landscape, which are among her most important and far-sighted purchases. In February 1916, Gwendoline Davies spent £2,350 on ten oils and a drawing by Augustus John. Both she and Margaret went on to acquire more works by John, and they collected the work of no other artist on this scale. Gwendoline was determined that the work of Augustus John be seen at Amgueddfa Cymru, later placing several of her own purchases on loan to the Museum. Guide to the paintings Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), Provençal Landscape, oil on canvas, about 1887–8 Bought by Gwendoline Davies with Cézanne's The François Zola Dam in 1918, this picture cost half as much, £1,250. It was probably painted at his family's property outside Aix-en-Provence. Full of the shimmering colour of the South of France where the sisters had holidayed in 1913–14, it must have seemed a world away from war-time Paris in winter. Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1951) NMW A 2438. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), The François Zola Dam, oil on canvas, about 1879 This landscape is one of Gwendoline Davies's greatest pictures, bought in Paris for £2,500 in February 1918. The Troyes canteen was closed for repairs. She was in the city, then under intermittent German bombardment, on Red Cross business. She may have seen it on a previous visit, as in January Margaret had translated from the French the art dealer Ambroise Vollard's anecdotal account of Cézanne's life. Together with Provençal Landscape acquired with it, this was one of the first Cézannes to enter a British collection. Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Gwendoline Davies, 1951) NMW A 2439. Camille Pissarro (1831–1903), Sunset, the Port of Rouen (Steamboats), oil on canvas, 1898 Margaret Davies bought several works by Pissarro at the Leicester Galleries, London, in June 1920. This was the most expensive at £550. The previous year she had worked at a canteen in Rouen run by the Scottish Churches Huts Committee. Amgueddfa Cymru (Bequest of Margaret Davies, 1963) NMW A 2492.
Grand portrait for a wedding in 1777 25 July 2007 Amgueddfa Cymru has an outstanding group of whole-length portraits from the 1770s. These include a work that was critical in establishing the reputation of the artist George Romney after his return from a career-making visit to Italy, and helped to make him the chief competitor of Reynolds and Gainsborough. George Romney (1734-1802), Elizabeth Harriet Warren (Viscountess Bulkeley) as Hebe, c. 1776 Oil on canvas, 238.5 cm x 148 cm. Romney had moved to London from Kendal in 1762 to seek success and fame. One of the pictures that began to make his reputation was a grand group portrait of the Warren family of Poyton, Cheshire, completed in 1769. Between 1773 and 1775 Romney travelled in Italy, to study classical and renaissance art first-hand and to increase his credibility with patrons. On his return to London he found himself largely forgotten. However, he leased a large house in Cavendish Square, and some of his former supporters came forward with new commissions. Sir George Warren was one of the first, ordering a portrait of his daughter Elizabeth, to mark her wedding in April 1777 to Thomas, 7th Viscount Bulkeley of Beaumaris (1752-1822). The principal landowner in Anglesey, and an associate of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, he was MP for his county from 1774 to 1784, when he was made a British peer. She sat for Romney on five occasions during May 1776. The artist then fell ill, and the final sitting took place in December. He put much thought into the composition, and there are sketches for it in several collections. Ronmey had long wanted to establish himself as a painter of "histories" (works with a literary and moral message), and Elizabeth is depicted as Hebe, cupbearer of the gods and goddess of youthful beauty. Hebe's traditional attributes are a cup or ewer and the eagle, symbolic of her father Zeus. She was a popular allegorical persona for 18th-century portraits of young women. This work exemplifies the "sublime and terrible" aspect of Romney's style. The mountain cascade is in austere, almost monochrome colour. The picture was intended to remind the viewer of classical sculpture. It was one of a number of neo-classical works that transformed his standing in 1776 and led to twenty years as London's busiest and most fashionable portrait-painter. Elizabeth and Thomas Bulkeley had no children and her portrait, which hung in the drawing room of their Anglesey house, Baron Hill, was eventually inherited by his half-brother. It passed to the Williams-Bulkeley family until bought by the Museum (where it had been on loan since 1948) with the assistance of the Art Fund in 2000. Further reading: Fritz Saxl & Rudolph Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean , Oxford 1948, repr.63(4); John Steegman, A Survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses, vol. 1, Houses in North Wales, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1957, p.25; David Irwin, English Neoclassical Art, London 1966, p.152.
