0:00:03 > 0:00:07100 years ago, a young Welsh painter spotted a spectacular view
0:00:07 > 0:00:10of the mountains of North Wales
0:00:10 > 0:00:14from an escarpment near Blaenau Ffestiniog.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18This series on art in Wales in the 20th Century
0:00:18 > 0:00:23begins with Augustus John, seen in his time as a trailblazer
0:00:23 > 0:00:28for those artists who were grappling with the tumultuous 20th Century.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Throughout that century, Welsh artists produced work
0:00:31 > 0:00:34that sometimes reflected and sometimes challenged
0:00:34 > 0:00:36the Wales that they'd emerged from.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Once upon a time, I wanted to be one of those artists,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42and after school here in Aberdare,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45I went to Hornsey College of Art in London
0:00:45 > 0:00:49and straight into the art college revolt of 1968.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53All in agreement,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57I propose that we now march down to Woodgreen Civic Centre.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02My time at Hornsey was filled with revolution about everything.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Especially about the way art was taught.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Later, as minister for the arts, I hit the headlines
0:01:08 > 0:01:12when I criticised what I saw as the emptiness of some modern art.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Now that I've retired from Parliament,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19I'm able to spend more time at my home in Pontypridd.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22This has given me the chance to start painting again
0:01:22 > 0:01:25and I jumped at the opportunity to work on this series
0:01:25 > 0:01:28on the story of art in Wales in the 20th Century.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42In this first programme, we'll be looking at the way Welsh artists
0:01:42 > 0:01:44responded to a dream of national revival
0:01:44 > 0:01:47that emerged at the beginning of the century.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51While some ignored it, for others it provided inspiration.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55But soon, the threat of world war would loom over the nation
0:01:55 > 0:01:59and artists would find themselves having to address a quite different challenge
0:01:59 > 0:02:02from the one that they'd expected.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26Born in 1878 in this street in Tenby,
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Augustus John hated the place that he grew up in.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34He described it as a kind of mortuary where everything was dead.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39For his sister, Gwen, too, this place had unhappy memories.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44She remembers conversations that were stifled at the dining table
0:02:44 > 0:02:48and where she was forced to eat rice puddings that she hated.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52But this house where they grew up
0:02:52 > 0:02:56nurtured two very remarkable talents
0:02:56 > 0:03:00and that was obvious, even in their teenage years.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Just around the corner at the Tenby Museum,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06I found self portraits of them both.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Augustus, supremely confident. Gwen, more tentative.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Their mother died young when Gwen was only eight-years-old.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17There's something especially poignant about this work by Gwen,
0:03:17 > 0:03:23painted in 1897 of a mother and daughter walking on a Tenby beach.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26The daughter looking earnestly at the mother.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36I tried to work out just where Gwen John had painted that scene
0:03:36 > 0:03:40and at that very spot was a mother with her daughters.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42What do you think? I'm trying to line this picture up
0:03:42 > 0:03:45with a painting that's in the gallery over there
0:03:45 > 0:03:47that's painted by Gwen John.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52She painted it when she was about 20 and it's of a mother and a daughter.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57We're trying to figure out exactly where she painted it from.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01- Can you see...- Isn't that a wall in the foreground?
0:04:01 > 0:04:04No, it's the beach. And see the houses?
0:04:04 > 0:04:07- Do you reckon that's about it? - Pretty close.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I thought you were doing the lifeboat stations.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13There we are. It just shows you, doesn't it?!
0:04:26 > 0:04:29For me, Tenby has lost none of its charm.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32But it had little hold on Gwen and Augustus.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Augustus referred to it as smugly insignificant.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40When brother and sister were still in their teens,
0:04:40 > 0:04:45they took the train to London to become students at the Slade School of Art.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Gwen hardly ever returned to her birth place
0:04:48 > 0:04:50and never painted it again.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea
0:05:07 > 0:05:09holds a couple of paintings by Gwen John
0:05:09 > 0:05:13and Karen McKinnon, a curator here, led me to one of them.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16It's very typical of Gwen's work.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20A three quarter portrait, usually of women, but sometimes...
0:05:20 > 0:05:24- Very muted colours, very limited palette.- Yes. Very limited palette.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Who would she have learned that off? Or was that part of her genius?
0:05:28 > 0:05:33She drew and painted from a very early age so she would have evolved into this style.
0:05:33 > 0:05:39But she was also influenced by Japanese prints as well.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Particularly in this one, you can see,
0:05:42 > 0:05:47because the line is so fine and minimal, it's almost cartoon like.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52I always think with her work, it's the look on the face as well.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56There's a kind of a gaze and Gwen John has written quite a lot
0:05:56 > 0:05:59about how she was interested in a more interior life.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03She was quite happy to spend long periods of time on he own.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06She was very contemplative.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10When the National Museum of Wales
0:06:10 > 0:06:13decided to re-think its Cardiff gallery lay out last year,
0:06:13 > 0:06:18it had no doubt at all that Gwen John was worthy of a place here.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24As curator Beth McIntyre sees it, Gwen John's move to Paris
0:06:24 > 0:06:28doesn't weaken her right to be seen as a major Welsh artist.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Indeed, that her work deserves to hang alongside the best work
0:06:32 > 0:06:34by French artists of the same era.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40We had a temporary exhibition where we showed her work by French artists
0:06:40 > 0:06:43and specifically alongside Rodin sculptures
0:06:43 > 0:06:48because she was Rodin's model and also his lover for a very long time.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52So in that context, we did show it with the French side.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54But she continued to exhibit in Britain.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59She sent paintings from France to exhibit at the New English Art Club.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01- That was in London?- In London, yes.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05And she continued to correspond with her colleagues from the Slade School of Art.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07So she knew what was happening here.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Beth McIntyre made a convincing argument for Gwen John,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14but I was less convinced about the case
0:07:14 > 0:07:17for another Welsh painter's right to be exhibited here.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21Amongst the Welsh painters that you've got is Christopher Williams.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Does he deserve to be in amongst these paintings?
0:07:24 > 0:07:28I think he certainly deserves a place within this gallery
0:07:28 > 0:07:32which is looking at the British reaction to impressionism
0:07:32 > 0:07:35and the artists who were exhibiting nationally at the time.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40Yes, he was one of the leading figures, certainly in Welsh art,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42and possibly within British art in London.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46He was a figure who was very keen to promote people who came from Wales.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56Whilst Gwen John was wrapped up in her love affair in Paris with the sculptor, Rodin,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00other Welsh artists were committing themselves strongly to Wales.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05I hadn't even heard of Christopher Williams
0:08:05 > 0:08:07when I started work on this series.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09But Maesteg hasn't forgotten him.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14The house where he was brought up has long gone.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17It's now the premises of Maesteg Nails.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21But there's a plaque above it to make his birth place.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27In the town hall, they proudly display
0:08:27 > 0:08:30five of Christopher Williams' paintings,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32including one of his own son dressed up as a judge
0:08:32 > 0:08:36and another of his father, the local grocer.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Does this work suggest a neglected Welsh talent?
0:08:41 > 0:08:46Robert Mayrick, the head of the art school at Aberystwyth University thinks so.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48He took me to see Williams' Wales Awakening
0:08:48 > 0:08:50at Caernarfon Council's offices.
0:08:50 > 0:08:56He wanted an art form that was accessible to the masses.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01He would talk about art for the masses and not only for the classes.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05He would make appeals to the mine owners and politicians of the day
0:09:05 > 0:09:08to help to make that happen.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10To commission works of art?
0:09:10 > 0:09:13To commission works of art, to bring in art to Wales.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18Great art that would inspire the best in indigenous Welsh artists.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22He's using a technique and he's creating an image
0:09:22 > 0:09:26which I find rather reactionary.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28Is he painting in this way
0:09:28 > 0:09:31because he believed it served a particular purpose?
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Yes. He wanted to speak to the people of Wales
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and he wanted to keep the symbolism as simple as possible.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40There's not a great deal of symbolism in there,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42but what you have is this figure
0:09:42 > 0:09:48which represents Wales awakening to the light, the new dawn.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51He was working at a remarkable time in Wales.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56A political and cultural revolution.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59It was quite unlikely that there'd ever been one before.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03We had our National Library of Wales. That was under construction.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05The National Museum of Wales.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09All the constituent universities of Wales were in place by this time.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13So there was a lot happening and there were a lot of opportunities
0:10:13 > 0:10:18for artists who rise on the tide of interest in things Welsh.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42A belief in Wales awakening was part of a nationalist upsurge
0:10:42 > 0:10:46throughout Europe in the early years of the 20th Century
0:10:46 > 0:10:50and found expression in the national Pantheon within Cardiff City Hall.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01The place of honour went to the statue of Dewi Sant, St David,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05sculpted by Goscombe John, a revered figure in Wales at the time.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09The rest of the Welsh heroes were carved by English sculptors.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12The Pantheon was opened by David Lloyd George MP,
0:11:12 > 0:11:15who, for a time, had become strongly identified
0:11:15 > 0:11:18with Cymru Fydd, Wales To Be.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28A feature film on Lloyd George made a few years later,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32caught the mood of excitement that had spread from Caernarfon
0:11:32 > 0:11:34throughout much of Wales.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38By 1910, some in Wales were demanding home rule.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Far away in London, another artist, proud of his Welsh descent,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53had picked up on the mood of national fervour.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57David Jones, admitted to Camberwell Arts School at the age of 16,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00was fired by Welsh history.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03His father was born here.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07One of his earliest memories was hearing his father sing Welsh songs
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and he identified very clearly with Wales.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15I met Anne Price Owen, the director of the David Jones Society,
0:12:15 > 0:12:19at Capel-y-Ffin, where David Jones later made his home.
0:12:20 > 0:12:26The whole Welshness, the myth, the legends, the Mabinogion
0:12:26 > 0:12:29and all the mutability and metamorphosis
0:12:29 > 0:12:33that takes place in those legends and so on,
0:12:33 > 0:12:38all somehow informed his whole psyche, his whole consciousness.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42He had a romantic vision of Wales, there's no doubt about that.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47This was the Wales he saw. The land of myths and legends.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Like the English sculptors at Cardiff City Hall,
0:12:53 > 0:12:58David Jones had a rosily romantic view of Welsh history.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03But where is industrial Wales?
0:13:03 > 0:13:05In the early years of the 20th Century,
0:13:05 > 0:13:10film makers were including coal miners and coal sifters as subjects
0:13:10 > 0:13:13But very few painters included industrial scenes
0:13:13 > 0:13:16and fewer still industrial workers.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26This despite the fact that industry was such a dominant feature
0:13:26 > 0:13:29of the Welsh landscape at the time and despite the fact
0:13:29 > 0:13:34that then, as now, it could be visually spectacular.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44Visually, one of the special things about Wales
0:13:44 > 0:13:48is this mix of dramatic landscape.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Of hillsides and mountains and deep valleys.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56And right up against it, you've got industry.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Coal mines, steel works, slate quarries.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02These are also visually very striking.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04But up until the First World War,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08artists didn't seem particularly interested in industry.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13When Augustus John came back to Wales,
0:14:13 > 0:14:18he didn't come here to South Wales, he went to North Wales.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20TRAIN WHISTLE
0:14:20 > 0:14:26In 1911, he came to stay near the Arenig mountains in southern Snowdonia
0:14:26 > 0:14:28with his Welsh friend, James Dickson Innes.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31He was attracted by Innes' eccentricity,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35painted him in an appropriately bohemian posture
0:14:35 > 0:14:38and was influenced by his bold way with landscapes.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51But Innes was a sick man, suffering from TB,
0:14:51 > 0:14:56and when Augustus John moved further west, Innes didn't come with him.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Augustus had little time for the people of Wales,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01referring to Welsh ignorance and civility,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04but was inspired by its mountains.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18I have always loved climbing, especially in Snowdonia,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22and can readily understand why this part of Wales attracted him.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31TRIUMPHANT PIANO MUSIC
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Augustus John came here to Tanygrisiau,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03just near Blaenau Ffestiniog.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09When he was here, he painted a painting called Welsh Mountains.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13This is the exact spot, I think, that he painted it from.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18He lived in a cottage, the ruins of which are just there,
0:16:18 > 0:16:25and behind him was a working quarry, a slate quarry. Vibrant industry.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29He didn't seem interested in it, he was more interested in the wonderful landscape.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32And who can blame him on a day like this?
0:16:33 > 0:16:35PIANO MUSIC
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Soon after he had graduated from art school,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Augustus John's work was selling well.
0:16:52 > 0:16:59A style more flamboyant than that of his sister was proving popular among potential patrons.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05- The Tutor is so different to Gwen John's, immediately. - It couldn't be more different.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09The thing about Augustus is he painted in so many different ways.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12He changed his style, he changed his colour palette,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15he sometimes did portraiture, he sometimes did many figures,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18or they'd reference mythology...
0:17:18 > 0:17:24Why do you think two young people from Tenby end up painting in such different ways?
0:17:24 > 0:17:29I mean, maybe going back to personality and the way they lived their lives as well.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32He was a very flamboyant character, you know.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36He did hang out with lots of people and party much more.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Maybe this is reflected in his painting as well.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43They were both in their formative period, learning to become artists
0:17:43 > 0:17:46around the time of the First World War.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51There were artistic influences flying everywhere across Europe at the time.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Very revolutionary things going on.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Would they have been like any other pair of artists,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02and have been influenced by all of those styles, or is there something about them,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06because they came from Wales, which made them different to their contemporaries?
0:18:06 > 0:18:14Like all artists at that time, they would have been influenced by all of those styles flying around.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16They both treat that very, very differently.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22And whereas Gwen John pares that down, perhaps we can say Augustus John was much more experimental
0:18:22 > 0:18:24and changes his style.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27I don't think that would be because they're from Wales.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30I think that would be something influencing all artists.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49To some, the investiture of the Prince of Wales
0:18:49 > 0:18:52was an event of huge national significance.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57By 1911, Lloyd George was the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01and made sure the event he'd devised would happen at Caernarfon Castle,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04at the heart of his constituency.
0:19:04 > 0:19:10He also made sure that he would chose the artist who would record the event for posterity.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15It would be the man who he considered to be the greatest artist Wales had ever produced,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18Christopher Williams.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24But by this time, film cameras were there to provide a precise record of the event.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36What could a very traditional artist add to the film version?
0:19:37 > 0:19:40The strange thing, of course, for a boy from Maesteg;
0:19:40 > 0:19:46a Socialist, somebody who'd joined the Fabian Society, to want to do, is it? To mix with this lot?
0:19:46 > 0:19:51It's something he really wanted to be a part of, to further his career.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53We must remember he wasn't teaching then.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58He was solely relying on the sales from portrait commissions.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02He didn't sell many landscapes during his lifetime. He didn't exhibit many.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04The income came from portrait commissions.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09Here you have all the great and good of Wales and beyond, all lined up.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15Some of them regarded as very dodgy characters indeed in Maesteg, where he came from.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22How much was he torn, do you think, about the people he mixed with, painted and sought commissions from?
0:20:22 > 0:20:26I think he would have been really quite torn.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30On the other hand, he did see it as an opportunity, I'm sure,
0:20:30 > 0:20:36to have his views listened to, to be able to speak to people of influence
0:20:36 > 0:20:39who were in a position to make things happen in Wales.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43- Through his connections- - He had powerful friends.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45He had powerful connections, by this time.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Through his friendships, we see David Lloyd George, there,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52he was about to paint his portrait in his regalia...
0:20:52 > 0:20:55Which he's wearing, of course, in this picture.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57An incredible uniform.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59He looks like a Hollywood Ruritania.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02It is. It was a spectacle, a major event in Wales,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and Christopher Williams very much wanted to be a part of that.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Christopher Williams made other portraits of his increasingly important patron.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Augustus John's portrayal was less pompous.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Within three years of the Caernarfon play-acting,
0:21:23 > 0:21:28the Welsh wizard was having to deal with the harsh reality of World War.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34Most people in Wales, and most artists, responded to the call to arms with enthusiasm.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43This is a First World War re-enactment at Detling in Kent,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47where members of the 10th Essex, along with brother groups
0:21:47 > 0:21:53from France and Germany, meticulously recreate warfare in the trenches.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58But it can only hint at the horrors of the reality of that war,
0:21:58 > 0:22:04and the huge impact it had on each of the Welsh artists we've featured on this programme.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07David Jones was rejected by a section of the British Army
0:22:07 > 0:22:09called the Artists Rifles,
0:22:09 > 0:22:15but seized the opportunity to assert his Welsh identity by joining the Welch Fusiliers.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18He remained a private soldier throughout the war,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22often sketching his fellow Tommies during the long period of waiting.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Years later, he wrote about it in a remarkable prose poem,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35called In Parenthesis.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39"Night begotten fear left them frail,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"Nor was the waking day much cheer for them.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45"They felt with each moment's more ample light
0:22:45 > 0:22:49"But a measuring, a nearing only of the noon-day hour.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53"When the Nessian trouble comes walking."
0:22:54 > 0:22:56BATTLE NOISE
0:22:59 > 0:23:01When he was in the battlefields,
0:23:01 > 0:23:06he realised that the whole slaughter and carnage
0:23:06 > 0:23:11and the wastefulness of war took hold of him.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16It taught him about the human spirit,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20all of the goodness that engages with the human spirit,
0:23:20 > 0:23:26but also, of course, the rather more malignant and malevolent qualities of mankind,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31in terms of seeing the wholesale slaughter,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35not just of the men themselves but to the creatures that were killed.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39He has a very compassionate drawing of rats, for instance,
0:23:39 > 0:23:45which have been shot when they'd been pulling down the trenches.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52Augustus John, accorded the status of war artist and Major with Canadian forces in the Somme,
0:23:52 > 0:23:57also painted soldiers during the endless waiting at the front.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01He took the opportunity to visit his sister, Gwen, in Paris.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Her beloved Rodin had died during the war
0:24:04 > 0:24:11and by now she had become a devout Catholic, calling herself God's Little Artist.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Her subject matter was almost exclusively confined
0:24:15 > 0:24:17to the nuns in the nearby convent.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Check your weapons and ammunition.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Augustus John had returned to the front,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38the only British officer allowed to wear a beard, apart from the King.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43He then disgraced himself. Though close to enemy lines,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47he got into a fight with a fellow officer and was sent home.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53David Jones remained to hear the terrifying order to go over the top,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and to witness the clash that was to devastate the Welch Fusiliers.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00The Battle of Mametz Wood.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Later he wrote of the terror it inspired.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14"Racked out to another turn of the screw,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17"The acceleration heightens.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19"You have not capacity for fear,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21"Only the limbs are leaden.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25"To negotiate the slope and rifles all out of balance.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29"Clumsy with long auxiliary steel five times the regulation weight.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33"It bitches the aim, as well."
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Four hundred Fusiliers died in just one day.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43David Jones was himself wounded.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00Frontline soldiers like Jones had no opportunity to paint the battles in which they fought,
0:26:00 > 0:26:04but Lloyd George's admiration for the work of Christopher Williams
0:26:04 > 0:26:08led to a commission to record the slaughter of Mametz Wood in paint.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Although not an official war artist, he was given permission to visit the western front,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and his preparatory oil sketch is, in many ways,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24more striking than the finished work.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34The finished work now hangs in the Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon Castle.
0:26:38 > 0:26:44The painting at Mametz Wood, I think, is about the theatricality of war, the spectacle of war.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48It's full of dynamism and adventure.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50There's a lot happening.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55It's very much about the theatre, it's like a great set.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05"Small, drab, bundled pawn several made effort, moved in tenuous line.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"If you looked behind, the next wave came slowly,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12"As successive serfs creep in to dissipate on flat shore.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17"And to your front, stretched long laterally and receded deeply,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19"The dark wood."
0:27:35 > 0:27:42Long after the war was over, David Jones, who had always longed to strengthen his Welsh identity,
0:27:42 > 0:27:48came to Tenby and painted a view of it, just as Gwen John had done, 30 years earlier.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58But the war had brought about a huge change is society,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02and therefore in those artists who reflected that society,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07especially so in Wales, where a new generation of artists was emerging.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10A generation determined that industrial Wales,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12and those who lived and worked in it,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15would no longer be ignored.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37.