Five Highlights from The National Library of Wales

Gwen John is considered to be Wales' most important 20th century artist. Born in Haverfordwest, S. W. Wales in 1876, the elder sister of Augustus John, she studied at the Slade School of Art, London and subsequently moved to France where she spent the rest of her life.

Her thought provoking work ‘Vase of Flowers’ ca. 1910, with her use of subtle colours and muted tones, creates a sense of stillness and tranquillity but also a sense of unease due to the garment which has been flung over a piece of furniture in the background.

Her work is reminiscent of post-impressionist painting whilst it also signifies her strength and independence as a female artist.

Kyffin Williams stated that this was one of the greatest works he ever painted. It depicts one of his favourite scenes of famers with their sheepdogs gathered on top of the snowy Glyder Fach mountain in North Wales under an atmospheric sky.

His use of a thick oil paint heavily applied onto the canvas with his palette knife was typical of Kyffin’s style and became iconographic. Through this unique application of paint one felt an intense energy flowing from his work.

The White Book of Rhydderch is one of the most notable and celebrated manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. Recorded in Middle Welsh in c.1350 from earlier oral traditions, it includes the earliest copy of the medieval Welsh tales known as the Mabinogion.

The Mabinogion is a famous collection of stories from the oral tradition of Welsh bards. The tales are based on myths and history of Celtic Britian. They are considered to be one of Wales’s chief contributions to world literature.

Published in 1486, this is the oldest surviving geographical record of Wales and is taken from Geographia, a treatise on cartography originally written in the 2nd century by the Greek geographer, Claudius Ptolemy.

It is one of the earliest printed maps of the British Isles, and is the oldest item in the National Library’s map collection