Cardiff Castle of Crossed Destinies

Gwendoline and Margaret Davies

Edward Davies, the son of David Davies, Ocean Coal, died at 46 mentally and physically broken by the intense pressure of trying to run the family business. His son, David Davies, took over the management of the business and his sisters Gwendoline and Margaret, 16 and 14 inherited a great fortune.

Privately educated they made the grand tour and began to collect art, taking advice from Henry Blaker of the Holburne Museum, Bath and John Whitcombe, curator at the Victoria Art Gallery also in Bath. 

At first the sisters collected Turner, Corot, Millet  and Daumier and later the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Their taste is in some ways conservative yet also socially engaged and extraordinarily comprehensive. For Gwendoline the purpose of art was to educate and inspire people morally and spiritually. They bought several Monet's and two paintings by Cézanne when he was little appreciated in Britain, the paintings they bought being instrumental in changing this through their generosity in lending them, not least to Roger Fry. They also bought a Van Gogh and several works by Rodin. They collected none of Degas' work but his reputation and opinions would no doubt have made him unpalatable to them. They bought a painting by Walter Sickert, Palazzo Eleanora Duse, which complements their other paintings of Venice but gives no insight into this artist's more ground-breaking work. They also bought paintings by Augustus John.

In 1915 their brother David was fighting in France. The sisters supported artists fleeing from Belgium to Britain, but later Gwendoline and then Margaret joined the French Red Cross in order to be nearer their brother and to do something practical themselves in the face of the unfolding tragedy of the First World War.

After the war their collecting slowed to a trickle. In 1918 they gave a grant of £5,000 to Aberystwyth University to support the teaching of art and the establishment of an Art Department and Gallery of Crafts. In 1920 they bought Gregynnog Hall from their brother and turned it into an art and cultural centre, hosting music and poetry festivals. They also established the Gregynnog Press, an imprint that produced some very beautiful hand made books. Gwendoline died in 1951 and on her death bequeathed a large number of paintings to the National Museum Wales. Margaret began collecting again, helping the National Museum fill gaps in its collection of twentieth century British work. In 1960 she donated Gregynnog Hall to the University of Wales. In 1963 on Margaret's death there was a further bequest of paintings to the Museum, in all Gwendoline and Margaret contributed 260 pictures to the National Museum Wales. Oriel Davies, Newtown , was built with a legacy from the sisters.