Wales: paintings by visitors, incomers

Wales became a place of interest for English artists to visit, for its romantic and picturesque qualities, in the 18th century. The great JMW Turner developed his art with many paintings on his tours of Wales as a young man. In the Victorian era, Henry Clarence Whaite founded the Cambrian (i.e Welsh) academy, and set up a small artists colony near Betws-y-Coed: other Victorians were drawn to the Snowdonia mountains in particular. From France, impressionist Alfred Sisley created some fine paintings during his stay by the South Wales coast.

Belgian Valerius de Saedeleer lived in rural West Wales during World War 1. Before the next world war, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, Martin Bloch and Heinz Koppel, worked in Wales (Koppel staying, and his son directed an excellent documentary film in West Wales). Pole Josef Herman is best known for his time at Ystradgynlais and the mining valleys of South Wales. Laura Knight's wartime painting of Ruby Loftus at a factory in Newport was voted best of the year by the British public. Graham Sutherland was a notable English artist who was inspired by Pembrokeshire to which he returned again and again, and John Piper, having married a Welsh woman, lived in Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia.