Press Releases
Colour and Light: 50 Impressionist works at the National Museum of Wales
Date:
2005-06-10"This is the first book on Cardiff's collection to be published for over twenty years. Having been to Cardiff myself, I am delighted that the National Museum of Wales has brought this book here to New York to launch. I congratulate the author Ann Sumner and the Museum on this excellent book."
The event, hosted by British Consul-General Sir Philip Thomas, was also attended by the book's author, Dr Ann Sumner, Curator of Fine Art at the National Museum of Wales, who said:
"We are pleased to be launching this book here in New York. Impressionist paintings have long been popular in the States, and some of the great American collections were formed at the beginning of the 20th century at the same time as the remarkable Davies sisters were collecting their Impressionist paintings in Wales. Their bequests to the National Museum of Wales transformed our collections.
"The Impressionist paintings in Cardiff are of exceptional quality and it has been a delight to research and write this new book, which I hope will raise the profile of the collections on a national and international basis, as well as encouraging Americans to come and see these works for themselves. I hope the book will be an invaluable source of information for our visitors and encourage them to look with fresh eyes at some of our best loved works" added Dr Sumner.
The Museum's collection includes iconic Impressionist works such as Renoir's La Parisienne, exhibited at the very first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, three of Monet's Waterlilies series and three of his late views of Venice, as well as splendid examples by Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Degas, Cezanne and Van Gogh.
Colour and Light is the first publication produced by the Museum for over 20 years specifically about this group of paintings, drawings and sculpture, many bequeathed by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. They were the wealthy granddaughters of David Davies of Llandinam (1818-1890), Wales's greatest 19th-century entrepreneur. The book includes an introductory essay about the collecting of Impressionist paintings, which places the Davies sisters into context, comparing them with American collectors. The new publication is fully illustrated in colour and includes many comparative images as well.
The book gathers together current thinking and interpretations of some of our most famous works including Manet's Effect of Snow at Petit-Montrouge, Paris, now considered to be his first truly Impressionist painting. Such new acquisitions as Sisley's Storr's Rock, painted by the artist when he was on honeymoon at Langland Bay on the Mumbles in 1897 and acquired by the museum in 2004, will also be published for the first time.
Impressionism was one of the most important and innovative artistic developments of the 19th century. The name was derived from a picture painted by Monet, Impression, Sunrise (1872), which represents the play of light on water. The group of young artists, which included Cezanne, Renoir and Sisley, sought ways of capturing the effects of light using spontaneous brushwork and bright colours. Today, Impressionist artists are household names whose works are instantly recognisable.
The National Museums & Galleries of Wales currently operates six sites across Wales: Big Pit: National Mining Museum, Blaenafon - winner of this year's prestigious Gulbenkian Prize, National Museum & Gallery, Cardiff; Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans; Roman Legionary Museum, Caerleon; National Woollen Museum, Dre-fach Felindre and the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis. The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, opens later this year, outlining the innovative stories of the peoples and industries of Wales.