In the fourth programme of the series two Welsh artists will take a fresh look at a classic nineteenth-century Impressionist painting of the ‘Bristol Channel from Penarth; Evening 1897’ by Alfred Sisely.

Mary Lloyd Jones and Therese Urbanska take Sisely's work as the inspiration to create their own paintings of the scene. Presenter Osi Rhys Osmond, looks at the background to this striking picture and follows the two artists as they work on the pictures on location in Penarth and at their studios in Aberystwyth and the Llŷn Peninsula.

The original oil painting was painted by the Impressionist when he visited Wales (or England, as he called it) as part of a trip to Britain to get away from the public glare in France. Sisley came to Britain in the spring of 1897 partly to recover after a disastrous Paris exhibition of his work. But he also came here to marry his long-term partner, Marie Louise Adélaïde Eugéne Lescouezec (1834-1898), whom Sisley’s wealthy British business family has frowned upon.

Sisley’s picture of Penarth’s rocky seashores was thus painted at a time of mixed emotions for the man, born of a British family in France, who became one of the founders of the ground-breaking arts movement Impressionism, along with Monet, Renoir among other key artists.

Artist profiles...
Mary Lloyd Jones
Therese Urbanska