Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

This display is a selection of works and archival objects relating to the British artist Graham Sutherland (1903-1980).

It shows both the breadth of material in the collection and archive here at the Museum, and suggests connections between objects and art and between the people and places that shaped Sutherland’s career.

Sutherland was celebrated as the ‘outstanding painter of his generation’.

Initially inspired by the English Romantic tradition, he developed a personal approach to nature which increasingly drew on modern European art.

The places in which Sutherland worked had a profound influence on his work: from the rural landscape of Kent to the hills and valleys of west Wales and the heat and light of the French Riviera.

Sutherland wanted to leave a collection to Wales because he felt ‘having gained so much from this country, I should like to give something back’.

In 1976 he established the Graham Sutherland Gallery at Picton Castle where the majority of this collection was held before its transfer to the Museum in 1995.

This display has been organised by Rachel Flynn as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and the University of Bristol.