Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/40

 in the fact that artists—not, I am sorry to say, as a rule Welsh artists but artists from outside—have, from time to time, lived and settled down in Wales, in order to interpret the scenery and the life of Wales. My feeling with regard to them is one rather of sadness that the interpretation of the beauty of the landscape and of the life of Wales should be left to artists from outside, and that their products should be for a public outside Wales. Their pictures do not pass through the mind or the heart of Wales, and this must be so, until we have a municipal gallery or galleries, or national gallery or galleries, where the products of these artists, who have seen the loveliness of Wales, can be exhibited for the wise enjoyment of the Welsh people. As it is, we have neither galleries nor artists of our own, nor any means, except the wealth and good fortune and taste of an individual Welshman here and there, of securing for our people either temporarily or permanently the artistic interpretation of the landscape and life of Wales by artists who come and live in Wales or settle down there for a season.