Given that here at Blondes Fine Art, we are proud stockists of much of the very finest Welsh art, we thought it appropriate to explore some of the relevant artists that we periodically stock - namely John Elwyn, John Knapp-Fisher and Josef Herman, who together did so much over their careers to inform the sensibility and concerns of modern Welsh art.
Foremost among those artists is John Elwyn, whose gentle depictions of the landscapes of his native west Wales have gained immense popularity among collectors as his reputation as a painter has risen to match that of such greats as Kyffin Williams.
Born in Newcastle Emlyn in south Cardiganshire - the son of a woollen mill owner - Elwyn attended Carmarthen School of Art and the Art School of the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, from which he won a Royal Exhibition Scholarship to London's Royal College of Art. From 1948 he was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and taught at Portsmouth and Winchester Schools of Art, retiring in 1976. He died in 1997.
Those looking to collect a true Welsh master watercolourist, meanwhile, simply couldn't do better than investing in the rich landscapes of John Knapp-Fisher. Born in London in 1931, the son of an architecture professor at the Royal College of Art, Knapp-Fisher studied graphic design at Maidstone College of Art and later worked in exhibition and theatre design.
After five years spent living and exhibiting from his sea-going fishing boat, in 1967, Knapp-Fisher relocated to Pembrokeshire, Wales, and was soon inspired by its coast. The following decade, the largest ever exhibition of his works - including more than 60 paintings - was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1992, he was elected a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy. We were greatly saddened to hear of his death in February, aged 83.
Finally, we are also delighted to be able to stock works by the Warsaw-born realist painter who will nonetheless always be strongly associated with Wales - Josef Herman (1911-2000). Unquestionably one of the greatest Jewish émigré artists, Herman is celebrated on Welsh shores on account of his brilliant depictions of local mining communities, although on his arrival in Great Britain after escaping the Nazis, he lived at first in Glasgow before moving to London.
Only in 1944 did Herman set up home in the South Wales mining community of Ystradgynlais, where he became affectionately referred to as 'Joe Bach' and collaborated with the Neath-based artist Will Roberts. By 1948, Herman had become a naturalised British subject.
Herman is just one of the many English, Welsh and Scottish artists whose high quality works we can offer to discerning collectors here at Blondes Fine Art in Hertfordshire. Please contact us today to enquire about any of the Welsh art that we offer in our present stock.