Kyffin Williams

Who was Kyffin Williams?

Sir John Kyffin Williams, (9 May 1918 – 1 September 2006) was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams was born in Llangefni, Anglesey, one of two sons into an old landed Anglesey family. Williams wrote that his mother was an emotionally repressed woman who had a virulent dislike of the Welsh and the Welsh language. Kyffin Williams was educated at Moreton Hall School, Trearddur House School in Anglesey, then at Shrewsbury School where he contracted polio encephalitis which led him to develop epilepsy, a misfortune he later described as "my greatest fortune". Williams enrolled at London's Slade School of Fine Art in 1941 (relocated to Oxford during the war), gaining prizes for portraiture at the end of both his second and third years. He joined the 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers as a lieutenant in 1937.

After he failed a British Army medical examination in 1941 (because of epilepsy), the examining doctor suggested he pursue his interest in art.

Historical significance

Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century.