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Gwendoline and Margaret Davies: Welsh Art Collectors

Through their industrialist grandfather’s fortune, the Davies sisters solidified their
reputation as art collectors and philanthropists who used their wealth to transform areas of
social welfare and the development of the arts in Wales.
The sisters started collecting in 1906, with Margaret’s purchase of a drawing of
An Algerian by HB Brabazon. The sisters began to collect more voraciously in 1908 after
they came into their inheritance, hiring Hugh Blaker, a curator for the Holburne Museum
in Bath, as their art advisor and buyer.
The bulk of their collection was amassed over two periods: 1908-14, and 1920. The
sisters became known for their art collection of French Impressionists and Realists, like
van Gogh, Millet, and Monet, but their clear favorite was Joseph Turner, an artist of the
Romantic style who painted land and seascapes. In their first year of collecting, they
bought three Turners, two of which were companion pieces, The Storm and After the
Storm, and bought several more throughout their lives.
They collected on a lesser scale in 1914 due to WW1, when both sisters joined in the The Davies sisters Margaret (left) and Gwendoline (right).
war effort, volunteering in France with the French Red Cross, and helping to bring Belgian
refugees to Wales.
While volunteering in France they made frequent trips to Paris as part of their Red Cross duties, while there Gwendoline picked up two
landscapes by Cézanne, The François Zola Dam and Provençal Landscape, which were the first of his works to enter a British collection. On a smaller
scale, they also collected Old Masters, including Botticelli’s Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate.
After the war, the sisters’ philanthropic pursuits were diverted from art collecting to social causes. According to the National Museum of Wales,
the sisters hoped to repair the lives of traumatized Welsh soldiers through education and the arts. This idea spawned the purchase of Gregynog
Hall in Wales, which they transformed into a cultural and educational center.
In 1951 Gwendoline Davies died, leaving her part of their art collection to the National Museum of Wales. Margaret continued acquiring
artwork, mainly British works collected for the benefit of her eventual bequest, which passed to the Museum in 1963. Together, the sisters used
their wealth for the wider good of Wales and completely transformed the quality of the collection at the National Museum of Wales.

McGonnell, Selena. “10 Prominent Female Art Collectors of the 20th Century” TheCollector.com, https://www.thecollector.com/20th-century-
female-art-collectors/ (accessed February 27, 2021). Selena McGonnell is a contributing writer and museologist. She holds an MSc in Museum
Studies from the University of Glasgow, and a BS in History. She has a passion for museums and heritage with research interests in collections of
colonial context, curatorial practices, art provenance, and British history.

28 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles