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Digital Wales -- Paintings and Drawings

Many paintings and drawings of Wales and from many of Wales' famous artists have now been digitised and are available to view online.

National Museum and Galleries of Wales: Art Collections
Art Collections is a catalogue that includes all the paintings and sculptures in the collection of the Art Department of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales. It lists over two thousand works which form the core of our Art collection, with biographical information on over nine hundred artists who are represented in it. You can search for works by title and search for basic biographical information about an artist. You can also search for representations of people and places.

Digital Mirror: Pictures
The National Library for Wales has a long-term programme for digitising many of its pictures and drawings, and making them available on the World Wide Web. This is part of the National Library of Wales Digital Mirror Collection and contains access of items such as:

  • Journey to Snowdon: Extra-illustrated version of part of 'A tour in Wales' by Thomas Pennant (1726-1798)
  • Ingleby watercolours: Views in north Wales and the Marches by John Ingleby (1749-1808)
  • Thomas Rowlandson: Welsh landscapes and other subjects by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
  • Tour to Hafod: A tour to Hafod, Cardiganshire in 1810 by Sir James Edward Smith (1759-1828)
  • Turner and Wales: Two landscapes of Wales by J M W Turner (1775-1851)
  • Etchings of Tenby: A volume of etchings by Charles Norris (1779-1858), which was published in 1812
  • Drawing volumes: Examples from the Library's collection of drawing volumes
  • Framed works of art: The Library's collection of framed works of art

Welsh landscape
Tirlun Cymru is also a National Library of Wales digitisation project that involves putting the Library's collection of topographical prints online. The first stage of the project is online and contains 1,500 prints from the old counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth. The remaining Welsh counties will also be digitised. The majority of the prints can be dated between 1750 and 1850.

The Monmouthshire and Glamorgan collection includes prints of:

  • Tintern Abbey
  • Blaenavon
  • Monmouth
  • Chepstow
  • Raglan Castle
  • Coity Castle
  • Caerphilly Castle
  • Cyfarthfa Castle
  • Dunraven Castle
  • Neath Abbey
  • Waterfalls in the Vale of Neath
  • Mumbles lighthouse
  • The old bridge at Pontypridd
  • Swansea harbour

Gathering the Jewels: Arts and culture
Gathering the Jewels is a collection of images of Welsh life, illustrating the natural and social history of Wales throughout the ages. The Sculpture and Fine Art section includes digitised images from many of Wales' famous artists and painters. They include:

  • Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956)
  • Joseph Edwards(1814-82)
  • Henry Gastineau (1791-1876)
  • Thomas Hornor (1785-1844)
  • Augustus John (1878-1961)
  • David Jones (1895-1974)
  • Thomas Jones (Pencerrig) (1742-1803)
  • Sydney Curnow Vosper(1866-1942)
  • Kyffin Williams (1918-)
  • Moses Griffith (1749-1819)
  • Hugh Hughes (1790-1863)
  • W. Goscombe John (1860-1952)
  • Maurice S. Jones (1853-1932)
  • Cedric Morris (1889-1982)
  • J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)
  • Penry Williams(1798-1885)

Leslie Illingworth
The National Library of Wales' on-line archive of Leslie Illingworth's (1902-1979) cartoons providing a short history of his career and a small selection of the 4563 cartoons housed at the Library. Political cartoons were his forté with many subjects covered between the 1930's to the 1970's from the second world war and the cold war to Aneurin Bevan and the trade unions. Leslie Illingworth was born in Barry and became a cartoonist for the Western Mail, Daily Mail and Punch. This is part of the National Library of Wales digital library. The resource has items of Welsh interest such as:

  • Welsh events including drowining of Capel Celyn, election of Michael Foot, establishment of Welsh television and Aberfan
  • Welsh politicians including Aneurin Bevan, Jim Griffiths and Jim Callaghan

Thomas Jones Pencerrig
Thomas Jones (1742 - 1803) was a 'Welsh landscape artist of considerable talent and inventiveness'. This virtual exhibition commemorates the bicentenary of Thomas Jones' death and includes information and images of all the images in Mrs J Evan-Thomas' bequest including Memoirs, Account Book, Hafod Sketchbook and watercolours taken in and around Pencerrig. Additionally, there are images of six views in south Wales and a manuscript Italian day book. This is part of the National Library of Wales digital library.

Turner Worldwide
There are 2,000 works by Turner held in public and private collections around the world. The project provides online access to these works alongside Tate’s own Turner holdings, creating a comprehensive online catalogue and rich central resource of information about Turner’s works outside the Tate Gallery. The geographic search provides digitised access to many of his works on particular areas of Wales. J.M. W. Turner (1775-1851) is acknowledged as the most important landscape artist in the history of art in the British Isles and many of his paintings portray life and landscapes in Wales. This is the first comprehensive online catalogue of Turner's works outside Tate. The resource provides details of Turner paintings at the:

  • National Library of Wales
  • National Museum and Galleries of Wales
  • Newport Museum and Art Gallery