Thyrza Anne Leyshon: The Welsh Miniature Portrait Painting Icon

Imogen Tingey, Exhibitions Assistant, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery

22 April 2025 | Minute read

Artist Thyrza Anne Leyshon was a successful Welsh miniature portrait painter and artist born and raised in Swansea from 1892.

When Thyrza retired after a long business career as a manager of Singer Sewing Machines, Swansea, and later an inland revenue civil servant, she explored a more creative endeavour at Swansea College of Art and started attending classes in pottery, life drawing, sculpture and painting.

She eventually found a passion for painting miniature portraits and landscapes and had her first miniature portrait exhibited in 1958 during the Festival of Wales Exhibition in Llandrindod.

Miss Leyshon went on to further academic training in London and studied privately alongside the leading miniaturist painter Ethel Court. She won numerous awards for her work including the gold medal by the Société des Artistes Français in 1968 and received the silver medal and Rowland Prize Award from Brussels in 1973.

The miniature paintings were displayed in various galleries across Wales including the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea (1960) and Turner Gallery in Penarth (1961). A plethora of her work was also shown internationally in places like the Paris Salon (1962 – 1974), Circle Nationale Belge d’ Art et Esthetique in Brussels (1963), and at the Miniature Art Society in Florida (1982-83).

Thyrza sadly passed away in 1996, aged 103. A large amount of her artworks were left to her nephew Dr Ronald Austin and later bequeathed to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection in 2024.

Recently, some of her miniatures were selected and displayed in an exciting new exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Come As You Really Are – Swansea Open 2025. The exhibition is part of a nationwide project, Come As You Really Are, by award-winning artist and Spider-Man enthusiast Hetain Patel, and ArtAngel. The exhibition represents a celebration of hobbies as a demonstration of innate creativity and a vehicle for self-expression alongside the beloved annual Glynn Vivian Swansea Open. Various objects and artworks from the Glynn Vivian Collection were also incorporated into the show together with Miss Leyshon’s miniature portrait paintings.

Some of the paintings were noted to be recreations of pieces from the Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales collection. These include a painting of Dylan Thomas titled ‘After A Portrait’ by Augustus John (1937-8) and a copy of Renoir's La Parisienne (1874).

Share

Comments

Comments are currently unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience.

CYNFAS