Portrait of Dylan could attract bids up to £15k
ONE of the last paintings of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas could attract bids of up to £15,000 when it goes to auction at the weekend.
It is by Gordon Thomas Stuart, who was Canadian but based in Uplands, Swansea, for many years after attending Ontario College of Art and Design.
In 1952 he moved to Swansea, working as a lecturer and adviser until devoting himself to painting full time in 1985 until his death in 2015.
When Swansea hosted the year of literature in 1995 Stuart became artistin-residence at the Dylan Thomas Centre and held the post for 15 years.
Stuart painted more than 200 writers, poets, and celebrities, including Sir Kyffin Williams, President Jimmy Carter and renowned record producer Sir George Martin.
However, it is his series of portraits of Dylan Thomas that are considered his most famous legacy.
Over three afternoons in the late summer of 1953, Gordon painted Thomas at The Boathouse in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, where the poet lived with his wife Caitlin and their three children.
The oil paintings were the last pictures painted of Thomas, who died a few weeks later, aged 39, after downing 18 whiskies at the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, New York.
Stuart recalled that Thomas “...was a good subject and very kindly towards me and told me he was looking forward to going to America”.
He added: “It was an amazing shock for me to hear that he had died in New York. I was very saddened.” The final portrait from the Laugharne sessions was important to Stuart, who kept it at his home in Swansea.
It is this portrait that is going under the hammer at Rogers Jones Auctioneers and Valuers’ Welsh Sale auction online this coming Saturday.
The firm has auction rooms in both Cardiff and Colwyn Bay and recently opened a new office at the Old Vicarage in Picton Terrace, Carmarthen.
Charles Hampshire at the auctioneers said: “Although Stuart did portraits of many literary icons, among them writers such as Kingsley Amis, Seamus Heaney, Beryl Bainbridge and Benjamin Zephaniah, he was inextricably linked throughout his career with the Dylan Thomas sessions, and was often asked about their time together.
“The State University of New York acquired one of the portraits of Thomas and a sketch went to the University of Texas.
“This portrait from the Laugharne sessions was kept by Stuart at his home and was exhibited at the National Eisteddfod in 1954, and then again for the first time at Dylan Thomas’s childhood home in Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, during the Dylan Thomas centenary celebrations.
“It is a great honour to offer it for sale without reserve within a section of Gordon Stuart works which have come from the beneficiaries of the Stuart estate.”
For further information about the virtual auction, call Rogers Jones and Co on 02920 708125 or visit www.rogersjones.co.uk