Kyffin Williams was born on Anglesey in 1918 and was advised by his doctor to take up art due to ill health. Between 1941 and 1944 he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London and held the post of Senior Art Master at Highgate School, London from 1944 to 1973. In 1968 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study and paint the Welsh in Patagonia. Williams held his first solo exhibition at P. & D. Colnaghi, London, in 1949 and subsequent solo exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries, London, Glynn Vivian Museum & Art Gallery, Swansea, Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff and the Tegfryn Gallery, Menai Bridge. Williams exhibited his work regularly at the Thackeray Gallery, London and the Albany Gallery, Cardiff. In 1987 a retrospective exhibition toured from the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff to the Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, and in 1993 a portraits retrospective was held at Oriel Ynys Mon in Williams' native Llangefni. Sir Kyffin Williams lived in Anglesey and continued to exhibit work widely. He has a permanent exhibition at Oriel Ynys Môn, Anglesey. He was President of the Royal Cambrian Academy from 1969 to 1976, and again from 1992. He was also a member of the Royal Academy and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Swansea (1989), University College, Bangor (1991) and University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (1992). In 1991 Williams received the Medal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. He died in 2006
