Casgliadau Arlein

Alfred Sisley oedd yr unig artist argraffiadol blaenllaw a baentiodd yng Nghymru. Fe deithiodd yma gyda’i bartner hirdymor, Eugénie Lescouezec – erbyn 1897 roedd iechyd y ddau yn dirywio, a daethant i Brydain i briodi’n dawel a chyfreithloni eu plant. Treuliodd y pâr yr haf yn ne Cymru, gan aros ym Mhenarth cyn mynd ar eu mis mêl i Fae Langland. Ym Mhenarth dyma nhw’n aros gyda masnachwraig glo o’r enw Mrs Thomas. Mewn llythyr at y beirniad Gustave Geffroy, dywedodd Sisley fod ‘y wlad yn brydferth a’r Ffyrdd, gyda’r llongau mawr yn hwilio i mewn ac allan o Gaerdydd, yn rhagorol’. Ond fe gwynai hefyd fod y gwelyau’n anghyffordus a’r tywydd yn rhy boeth! Cynhyrchodd Sisley chwe paentiad ar ei arhosiad byr ym Mhenarth, gan astudio gwahanol dywydd ac effeithiau golau tra’n gweithio ar sawl cynfas ar y tro. Paentiwyd yr olygfa hon o’r llwybr ar ben y clogwyn sy’n cysylltu Penarth a Larnog, lle profodd y dyfeisiwr Guglielmo Marconi y signal radio cyntaf ychydig fisoedd ynghynt. Yn ogystal ag esiampl o dirlun Cymru drwy lygaid Argraffiadwr, dyma un o’r morluniau prin gan Sisley sydd wedi goroesi, a’r olygfa gyntaf o Gymru ganddo i gael ei chaffael gan gasgliad cenedlaethol ym Mhrydain.

Alfred Sisley was the only major Impressionist artist who came to Wales to paint. He came to marry his long-term partner, Eugénie Lescouezec. By 1897 they were both facing ill health, and travelled to Britain to marry and quietly legitimise their children. The couple spent the summer in south Wales, staying at Penarth and later honeymooning at Langland Bay. In Penarth they stayed with a Mrs Thomas, a coal merchant. In a letter to critic Gustave Geffroy, Sisley said ‘the countryside is pretty and the Roads, with the big ships sailing in and out of Cardiff, is superb’ – though he did complain that the beds were uncomfortable, and the weather too hot! Sisley produced six paintings during his short stay at Penarth, working on several canvases simultaneously, exploring different light and weather effects. This view was painted from the clifftop walk linking Penarth and Lavernock, where just a few months earlier Guglielmo Marconi made history by transmitting the world’s first radio signal. This painting not only shows the Welsh landscape through the eyes of an Impressionist, it is also one of Sisley’s rare surviving seascapes, and is the first of his Welsh views to enter a public collection in Britain.