Casgliadau Arlein

Un llun yw hwn o grŵp o bortreadau a gomisiynwyd gan y diwydiannwr Francis Crawshay yn y 1830au. Maepob un o’r gweithwyr – dynion i gyd – yn grefftwyr a gwŷr di-grefft o weithfeydd dur Hirwaun a gweithfeydd tunplat Trefforest. Peth anghyffredin oedd i un o gewri diwydiant gomisiynu portreadau unigol o’i weithwyr, ond nid diwydiannwr cyffredin oedd Francis Crawshay. Adeiladodd fwthyn bychan i’w hun yn hytrach na byw ym mhlasty’r teulu, a doedd dim diddordeb ganddo yn arferion busnes y Crawshays: cwynai ei dad ei fod yn gwario arian fel y dŵr. Ef oedd unig siaradwr Cymraeg y teulu, a byddai’n fwy tebygol i chi ei weld yn rhannu sgwrs gyda’i weithwyr nag yn eu gorchymyn. Enw hoffus y gweithwyr amdano oedd ‘Mr Frank’. Ddechrau’r 1830au cymerodd Francis yr awennau yng Gweithfeydd Dur Hirwaun, a brynwyd gan ei dad ym 1819, a’r gweithfeydd tunplat newydd yn Nhrefforest. Comisiynwyd portreadau’r gweithwyr oddeutu 1835, ac maent wedi’u priodoli i’r artist teithiol W J Chapmen. Arhosodd y set ym meddiant y teulu Crawshay drwy ewyllys, ac mae’n bosib bod mwy yn wreiddiol – mae cofnod o un arall sydd bellach ar goll i bob tebyg.

This is one of a unique group of portraits of workers commissioned by the industrialist Francis Crawshay in the 1830s. The portraits – all male – include both skilled and unskilled workers from the ironworks at Hirwaun, and the tinplate works at Treforest. It was unusual for industrial baron to commission individual portraits of their workers, but Francis Crawshay was not your typical industrialist. He built his own cottage instead of living in the grand family home, and was indifferent to the Crawshay way of working: his father apparently complained of him ‘spending my money as a devil of a pace’. The only Welsh speaker of the family, he was apparently more likely to be found chatting with the workers than ruling over them. The workers fondly called him ‘Mr Frank’. In the early 1830s, Francis was put in charge of Hirwaun Ironworks, which his father had acquired in 1819, and a new tinplate works at Treforest, near Pontypridd. The portraits of his employees were commissioned around 1835, and are attributed to W J Chapmen, a travelling artist. The group passed by descent in the Crawshay family, and may originally have been ever larger. One other figure is recorded, but now seems to be lost.