Christopher Williams: Bringing “The Llynfi Iron Works” home to Maesteg

Christopher Williams: Bringing “The Llynfi Iron Works” home to Maesteg

Watch: Christopher Williams: An Artist, and Nothing Else (Part 2)
 
One of Wales’ greatest artists 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 Llynfi Iron Works.

The painting is called ‘Maesteg Iron Works’ and was kept by relatives of Williams after his death, and was rediscovered in 2021 

One of these relatives has now very kindly donated the painting, which is undergoing significant conservation work, so that it can be displayed in Maesteg Town Hall; the town of its creator and its subject. 

Watch: Christopher Williams: An Artist, and Nothing Else (Part 1)