‘Welsh Art’ and Wales as an artistic destination are perhaps not subjects which have been given serious attention in the past. Welsh artists are often considered to be, at best, minor figures within the wider canon of British Art. Similarly, depictions of Wales are often little appreciated when considered alongside more ‘exotic’ locations.

This lecture seeks to enlighten audiences as to the key role Welsh artists have played commencing with the father of British landscape art, Richard Wilson. We will consider the enduring influence of the Welsh landscape in the emerging Romantic period (as captured by JMW Turner) through the later 19th Century with the establishment of the Betws y Coed artists’ colony. Then move on to the artists of the 20th century who have offered a very different interpretation to the vision of the ‘Land of my Fathers’.