The National Museum of Wales1993

The National Museum of Wales, founded in 1907, incorporates the National Art Gallery of Wales. Although of major international standing, its collections remain surprisingly little known. The most spectacular exhibits are the remarkable French paintings and sculptures assembled at the beginning of the century by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, especially the major group of works by Daumier, Millet, Rodin, Monet and Cezanne. As the Welsh national collection, the Gallery also houses comprehensive displays of Welsh artists, including works by Richard Wilson, Thomas Jones, Gwen and Augustus John, David Jones and Ceri Richards. In addition, over two centuries of landscape painting, from Richard Wilson to Graham Sutherland, demonstrate the enduring potential of the Welsh scenery to captivate artists. Throughout the collection, the international context of the art of the Principality is expressed in displays highlighting old masters such as Poussin, Claude and Canaletto, eighteenth-century continental porcelain, nineteenth-century artists including Turner, Whistler, Burne-Jones and practitioners of the 'New Sculpture', and leaders of the Modern Movement including Sickert, Moore, Bacon and Freud. This new companion guide has been published with the assistance of British Gas Wales. It includes an introductory essay on the formation and history of the collection, short introductions to the twelve major subject areas, and colour illustrations of more than 150 works, ranging from paintings and sculpture to silver and ceramics, each illustration accompanied by a full description. Published to coincide with the opening of a new wing of galleries in the autumn of 1993, this volume constitutes a treasury of old and modern masters.