James Milo Griffiths

Disgrifiad

He was born 11 June 1843 at Pont-Tre-seli, Pembrokeshire, he was apprenticed under the patronage of the bishop when Llandaff cathedral was being rebuilt. When he was twenty, he was admitted to the Royal Academy school, London.

The difficulties that beset his path were enormous; early advantage he had none, and the fame which came to him in subsequent days was won by sheer hard work and a genius that could not be suppressed. He loved his country with a Welshman's passion, and his best efforts were devoted to the uplifting of art in his native land. He was bound up in many associations in Cardiff.

It was in Cardiff also, at the Industrial Exhibition held in 1870, that he first exhibited his works, and these, four in number, are to be found in the Cardiff Museum. His best-known works in Wales are probably the John Batchelor statue at Cardiff and the Sir Hugh Owen statue at Carnarvon. At the National Eisteddfod held in Cardiff in 1883, and the Art Exhibition held there a year afterwards he was also a successful exhibitor.

In 1883 his works were admitted to the Royal Academy, and in 1884 and 1885 also he had there many specimens of his skill on exhibition. One of his Academy pieces, "The Flower Girl,” which was afterwards purchased by Mr. C. R. W. Talbot and is now in the drawing-room at Margam.

"The figure, in which the sculptor has expressed the blossoming of midsummer, is remarkable as a very successful attempt to combine an ideal and allegorical motive with realistic detail. Like the clever monumental artists of Italy, who have filled the Campo-Santo of Genoa with pathetically naturalistic effigies, arranged in the night-dresses and lying on the pillowcases of actual deathbeds, Mr Griffith has not hesitated to make his marble present the mysteries of modern frills and the head of his statue has almost the air of a portrait, the features and the arrangement of the hair having nothing of Greek traditions. The subject is a charming one, combining as it does the riches of July roses with the fulness of ripe and beautiful youth, and Mr Griffith has treated it with a certain frank simplicity. The attitude which he has chosen shows no research, and no effort after gracefulness, for which fact its lines will be the more pleasing in many eyes."

Image credit:
Marble relief: 'Llywelyn' ; National Museum Wales
Potrait: James Miro Griffiths ; National Library of Wales