Kyffin Williams Memories of his time at Highgate School, London

When Sir Kyffin Williams, Art Master at Highgate from 1944-73, died in 2006, much of his artwork was left to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

Amongst the items in the Kyffin Williams Bequest were some 250 pictures produced by pupils while Kyffin was working in north London.  They had been stored in Kyffin’s home in Pwllfanogl on the shores of the Menai Straits.  David Smith, Head of Physics at Highgate, selected the pictures with the assistance of Lona Mason and Iwan Dafis. The loan of the pupil artwork from the Bequest was arranged and facilitated by Iwan Dafis, Exhibitions Officer.

Kyffin Williams, self portrait

Roughly half of the pictures had names on, and about 25 of those names belonged to Old Cholmeleians (OCs – i.e. alumni of the school) that the school had contact details for.

Also included in the loan mature works that Kyffin owned by his more successful pupils, including Anthony Green RA, and the late Patrick Procktor RA.  The OCs concerned were contacted and asked to provide memories of their art teacher for use as captions.  The response to the news that their early artistic efforts had resurfaced after so long was uniformly one of surprise and delight.

Michael Delaney writes:

‘Kyffin allowed small groups of us to go to Highgate Cemetery and I really enjoyed those afternoons when we actually worked quite hard and took it all quite seriously.  I can’t remember how we managed to slip into the Cemetery but we found a way at the top end.  The technique I used on the drawing was very much Kyffin’s – one I have never seen since.  The wooden end of a brush was sharpened and used that as a pen for our ink drawings. It had the advantage that one could control the weight of line much more easily than with a conventional nib and could give the equivalent of a ‘dry-brush’ mark on the paper.

Kyffin was delightful and he always encouraged his pupils and gave sound advice and inspirational ideas.  We all appreciated his helpfulness and I don’t think he ever had any difficulty in keeping order.  He had many amusing anecdotes about the great artists and to be taught art history was both entertaining and interesting.  At the time I hadn’t appreciated just how good he was.

I last saw him about ten years ago when he received the Cymmrodorion Medal for outstanding contribution to Wales at the University of Bangor.  It is the highest accolade that the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion can award and is considered as one of the premier awards in Wales.  The Society’s patron is HRH The Prince of Wales and only 28 medals have been awarded in its 250 year history.  It was very good to chat to Kyffin again and he really hadn’t changed much, just a little older.’

A large audience, numbering several of the youthful artists, now in their 60s and 70s, saw Dr Paul Joyner, Head of Purchasing and Donations at the NLW, formally open the exhibition on 3 November 2011.  Further talks by Procktor biographer, Ian Massey, and Suffolk-based artist, David Porteous-Butler (a former Kyffin pupil), highlighted different aspects of Kyffin’s importance as a life-changing teacher.

David Smith, Head of Physics, Highgate School, London N6 4AY