Ernest Zobole (1927–1999) was from an Italian family who settled in Wales in 1910. He was born in Ystrad, Rhondda, and his father worked at the pit and his works up to the end of the 1950s are scenes of the Rhondda Valley; his subsequent works show no less an attachment to the Rhondda but reveal an increasing influence of abstract art. He along with Charles Burton, Glyn Morgan, Nigel Flower, David Mainwaring and Robert Thomas became known informally as the Rhondda Group, as a group of artist friends who studied at Cardiff College of Art in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Developed in association with Grant Waters, Art Detective Group Leader: South East England, East England and the Midlands.