Vincent Evans (1895-1976)

: A Prophet Not Without Honour

Abstract

Vincent Evans (1895-1976) was one of a small group of professional artists who experienced working underground as a collier. He portrayed coal miners at work in the South Wales mines when there was little or no mechanisation in the collieries. His work includes drawings, etchings, monotypes and paintings which form a valuable historical record of the industry before and during the first World War. Evans was born and raised in the Swansea Valley. Despite a deprived upbringing and leaving school to work underground at the age of thirteen, he won scholarships to study at the Swansea College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. His paintings, which were shown during his lifetime at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibitions , as well as at other prestigious galleries and exhibitions in London and Paris, were the subject of critical acclaim. Education formed an important part of Evans’ career. Apart from the period 1923 to 1932 he taught and lectured continuously, well beyond normal retirement age. He served on art examination boards in Wales and London and he was an early advocate for the establishment of a National Gallery of Welsh Art, arguing for the founding of a collection of contemporary Welsh art. Evans’ artistic talent was recognised early and his depictions of miners working underground, drawn with painstaking accuracy, form a comprehensive record of mining in the early twentieth century. Despite that, his work was rarely acquired by public institutions during his lifetime. Consequently few art historians, curators or collectors are aware of his work, even in Wales. This dissertation is intended to detail Evans’ career and to explain why the promise shown in his early years remained unrecognised. Wales is not generally regarded as having produced many practitioners in fine art and Vincent Evans should be accorded his proper place in the pantheon of British industrial art.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Colin Cruise (Supervisor)