Former home of Kyffin Williams goes on sale

The birthplace of one of Wales’ most celebrated and enduring painters, Sir Kyffin Williams, has gone on sale.

The charming five bedroom detached house in Llangefni, Ynys Môn (Anglesey) is on the market for £460,000 – double the current average asking price for a home in Wales.

Built in the 1600s, the exterior of the house features a bilingual commemorative plaque which says simply in English, ‘Kyffin Williams, 1918-2006, the artist was born in this house’

Listing

Estate Agents, W Owen, based in Bangor write: “Built in the 1600’s and originally the birthplace of Sir Kyffin Williams, the property offers extensive and versatile family accommodation which includes three reception rooms, a ground floor study, five double bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms.”

“Whilst the property has been considerably modernised by the present owners, it still retains much of its original character with features such as quarry tile floors and light oak parquet flooring to a number of rooms, a gas fired AGA range to the dining room, dado rails, panelled doors and picture rails.”

“Further features include a beautiful solid oak front door, engineered light oak flooring to the sitting room, light oak doors to number of rooms, an enamelled cast iron multi-fuel stove to the sitting room, a further large multi-fuel stove to the lounge and three re-fitted bath/shower rooms.”

Kyffin

Kyffin Williams was born in Llangefni, one of two sons into an old landed Ynys Môn family.

His father was a bank manager, and 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 Ynys Môn, then at Shrewsbury School where he contracted polio encephalitis which led him to develop epilepsy, a misfortune he later described as “my greatest fortune”.

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.

After deciding to shelve any plans of ‘success’ in the eyes of his family or the society into which he was born, Kyffin struggled through the entrance exams for the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he studied between 1941 and 1944.

From these modest beginnings he developed as a painter, and cites Piero della Francesca as an important early influence.

Using a palette knife and thick impasto paint applied in blocks of strong colours and contrasting sombre tones, he succeeded in capturing the often turbulent weather on the rugged Welsh landscape. Kyffin Williams was also a noted portraitist.

Awarded an OBE and elected ARA in 1970, he became an RA in 1974, Williams continued his successful career and has become the most prominent and accessible Welsh artist of his generation.

Kyffin Williams passed away on 1 September 2006 but endures as one of Wales’ most celebrated and inspiring artists.