Celebrating Christopher Williams: help us bring 'Maesteg Iron Works' home

Throughout 2023 we’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous artist Christopher Williams, who was born in Commercial Street, Maesteg on 7 January 1873. 
 
Christopher Williams painted many celebrated works including portraits of the royal family and Prime Minister David Lloyd George, landscapes, scenes from classical myth and the Mabinogi, and most famously, the heart-wrenching “Welsh at Mametz Wood”; considered controversial in its day for its brutally realistic depiction of the First World War. 
 
Before his death in 1934, Christopher Williams donated four paintings to the town of Maesteg, with another two donated by his widow soon after. These six paintings have hung in Maesteg Town Hall ever since, and have recently been restored to be re-hung and displayed within the hall for generations to come.  
  
One of Christopher Williams’ lesser-known paintings is also one of his more personal ones, featuring a local Maesteg landmark, the furnace of the Iron Works.

The painting is called ‘Maesteg Iron Works’ and was kept by relatives of Williams after his death.

One of these relatives has now very kindly donated the painting, which is to be hung in Maesteg Town Hall; the town of its creator and its subject. 

The painting needs significant conservation work before it can be displayed in public, and we have received a £5000 grant towards the cost of this. This very generous grant has come from the Pilgrim Trust, who also supported the conservation work of the other Christopher Williams paintings that will be returned to the Town Hall once the redevelopment work is complete. 

However, this leaves another £6000 to cover the conservation cost for the painting. If you would like to help us raise these funds to bring the ‘Maesteg Iron Works’ home, you can find out more and make a donation using the following link:

www.localgiving.org/appeal/christopherwilliams