Capel Salem is a Grade II listed building in the hamlet of Pentre Gwynfryn, near Llanbedr, Gwynedd, Wales. This Baptist chapel building is located about a mile up river of Llanbedr, on a ridge between the two valleys. It is just 300 yards (270 m) upstream from where the two rivers meet. The building was begun in 1826 and completed in 1851 but ten years later, it was extended to include the chapel house and to remodel the interior. [1]
The Chapel is the subject of a 1908 painting by Sidney Curnow Vosper, (b. 29 October 1866). The painting was purchased a year later by Lord Leverhulme of in 1909. At a time when many homes owned no form of visual art, Salem became widely and uniquely popular amongst working class communities, especially in Wales. [2]
As the painting's popularity spread, so did the discussion and rumours around the notion that it contained a hidden figure, most notably that the devil was depicted in the central figure's shawl. The various interpretations of the painting, themselves became considered as examples of how people viewed rural nonconformist communities, and how the Welsh viewed themselves. [3]
Vosper always denied he had painted any faces into the shawl. However, the painter did confirm that he painted a ghostly face in the window above the central figure. The partial knowledge (that somewhere within the painting is a hidden face) was probably the starting point for the belief that a devil was painted into the shawl. [4] Today, the painting and its hidden faces are often cited as an example of pareidolia. The original picture now hangs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. [5]
The Welsh hat worn by women as part of Welsh national costume is a tall hat, similar to a top hat, or the capotain. It is still worn by Welsh folk-dance women, and schoolgirls, in Wales on St David's Day, but rarely on other occasions.
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral and one of the National Museums Liverpool.
Llanbedr is a village and community 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Harlech. Administratively, it lies in the Ardudwy area, formerly Meirionnydd, of the county of Gwynedd, Wales.
Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.
Port Sunlight is a model village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in its soap factory ; work commenced in 1888. The name is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent, Sunlight.
Llanbedr-y-Cennin is a small village in Conwy county borough, Wales, in the community of Caerhun.
Sir John Kyffin Williams, was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century.
Peter Prendergast was a Welsh landscape painter. After the death of Sir Kyffin Williams in September 2006, he was recognised/known as the leading landscape painter in Wales.
Christopher David Williams was a Welsh artist.
Endaf Emlyn is a Welsh musician, film, and television director.
Pentre Gwynfryn is a village in the Ardudwy area of Gwynedd, Wales about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Llanbedr and the community of the same name. The village is at the confluence of the River Artro and the River Cwmnantcol.
Charles Burton Barber (1845–1894) was a British painter who attained great success with his paintings of children and their pets.
Sydney Curnow Vosper RWS, RWA was an English painter and etcher of landscapes and figure subjects. His later work has a close association with Wales and Brittany. His most famous work is Salem (1908), which shows an old woman in the Welsh national costume, with Welsh hat and shawl, attending a service at Salem Baptist Chapel, Pentre Gwynfryn.
La Parisienne is an oil painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, completed in 1874 and now displayed at the National Museum Cardiff. The work, which was one of seven presented by Renoir at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, is often referred to as The Blue Lady(French: La Dame en Bleu) and is one of the centre-pieces of the National Museum's art collection.
The Leverhulme Memorial stands to the west of the Lady Lever Art Gallery on the junction of Windy Bank and Queen Mary's Drive, Port Sunlight, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It commemorates the life of William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the businessman who created the factory and model village of Port Sunlight. The memorial was designed by James Lomax-Simpson, and the sculptor was William Reid Dick. It consists of an obelisk with a figure on the top, with a separate group of four figures beside it. The memorial was unveiled in 1930. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Salem is a painting of 1908 by the English painter Sydney Curnow Vosper, depicting a scene within Capel Salem, a Baptist chapel in Pentre Gwynfryn, Gwynedd, Wales. It is noteworthy as a depiction of Welsh piety, the traditional Welsh national costume, and for a contentious belief that the devil is depicted within it. Mass reproductions throughout the early and mid 20th century ensured that the image became famous throughout Britain.
Mostyn is a public art gallery in Llandudno, North Wales. It was previously called Oriel Mostyn but was rebranded as simply Mostyn following its 2010 revamp.
The Last Muster is an 1875 oil painting by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, based on his wood engraving Sunday at the Chelsea Hospital published in The Graphic on 18 February 1871. The painting is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, Wirral.
Rhiannon Davies Jones was a Welsh historical novelist, lecturer and Welsh nationalist who wrote in Welsh. Educated at University College Bangor, she won two prizes for short novels, two Prose Medals at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and the crown at the 1973 Anglesey Eisteddfod. Jones published ten novels with her works covering fictional diaries, her political beliefs and responses to political events, and Welsh kings and princes.