Wales has a rich LGBTQ+ history: from the Celts to Ivor Novello and Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (as depicted in Pride!) to name but a few. Queer Welsh women have made an important contribution to art, both as subjects and artists, but their 'queerness' – used here as a useful umbrella term for people who historically existed outside of heteronormativity – is not always acknowledged, despite being an important facet of their personalities, history and work. Here I focus on women who are considered queer Welsh icons in art.
The Ladies of Llangollen are the most famous example. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby met in Ireland. After leaving their Irish aristocratic families in 1778 – with the help of Sarah's maid, Mary Carryl – they toured Wales before settling in Llangollen when their money ran out, and eventually moved to Plas Newydd. Their fascinating story attracted many visitors to Plas Newydd, including Wordsworth, Byron, and Anne Lister – known to some as the first modern lesbian – who the Ladies inspired. They lived together for 50 years in what was considered a 'romantic friendship' but would now be considered a same-sex or lesbian relationship. They formed a life partnership and had consecutive dogs named Sappho.
Their fame led to Ladies of Llangollen-themed tourism. There are surviving plates, cups, figurines and postcards depicting the pair, and their former home Plas Newydd, now a National Trust property, is still a tourist spot. The Ladies resisted images of them being created, but their portraits were secretly sketched by Mary Leighton in 1828, with further images made from these originals. Their cats were painted earlier, in 1809, demonstrating the interest others had in all aspects of the Ladies' lives.
The Ladies inspired Irish suffragette Frances Power Cobbe and Welsh sculptor Mary Charlotte Lloyd who also settled together in Wales, calling themselves the 'Ladies of Hengwrt'. There is no surviving art that we know of by Mary Charlotte Lloyd, but another queer figure from art history, Gwen John – one of the most well-known Welsh painters today – has left behind a considerable body of work.
Famous for her views of quiet interiors, introverted-looking women and cats, her queerness is often left undiscussed. Her relationship with Rodin is well-documented – she modelled for him, sometimes with other women, and became his lover – but her infatuations with women, like her classmates at Slade, are less known. Later in life, she wrote (unrequited) love letters to Vera Oumançoff, and had other possible sapphic infatuations, like with Dorelia McNeill. This adds another dimension to Gwen's portraits of women, as well as portraits of her by other women.
Mary Constance Lloyd (1873–1968) 
Like Gwen John, Nina Hamnett was born in Pembrokeshire, was bisexual, painted beautiful portraits of women and lived in France. But while Gwen has historically been described as 'reclusive', Nina was the Queen of Bohemia, having affairs and dancing on tables in Paris and London. She spent her later life broke and under the influence of alcohol, dying after a fall from her balcony.
Roger Eliot Fry (1866–1934) 
Today, Gwen's 'quiet' reputation is being challenged, especially through examining her bisexual love affairs and artworks like her self-portrait of 1900, where she stares challengingly at the viewer. Nina appears similarly defiant in her portraits. A self-portrait of 1913 shows Nina in the same pose, one hand on her hip – perhaps inspired by Gwen. Nina shaped her reputation with her autobiographies, as did Gwen with her unusual lifestyle choices. Both lived outside of heteronormativity and are now celebrated queer Welsh icons.
The actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies lived at a similar time and was openly lesbian. A portrait of her at Amgueddfa Cymru shows her at her art: standing proudly over visitors, her doe-eyed expression catching our attention. This isn't her as her true self: here she is playing Etain in The Immortal Hour.
Other portraits show her playing a masculine figure in Henry V and as Juliet, her most famous role. She also appeared as an older woman in horror films. She lived to be 101 and South African actress Marda Vanne was her partner for many decades.
Jan Morris was a historian and pioneering trans woman who, like Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, grew up in England in a Welsh family. Jan later moved to Wales and made a significant contribution to Welsh writing and nationalism. In portraits, she is often depicted at her home of Trefan Morys, where she lived with her partner of 71 years, Elizabeth Morris, and four children. They had to divorce after Jan transitioned but entered a civil partnership later in 2008. This precedent was set by the Corbett v Corbett case when Arthur Corbett divorced April Ashley, another pioneering trans woman who lived in Hay-on-Wye in the 1980s.
Michael Tomlinson (b.1958) 
Today, more art is being created by trans artists in Wales than ever before, with art collectives and community projects like SPAF Collective and Trawsnewid from Bloedd AC, the platform for youth engagement at Amgueddfa Cymru.
Another depiction of queer Welsh women came into being through the recent Monumental Welsh Women campaign. After Betty Campbell became the first named Welsh woman to be honoured with a public statue in Wales, the campaign continued for more statues – of Suffragette Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda), writer Elaine Morgan, activist Elizabeth Andrews and Sarah Jane Rees – otherwise known as Cranogwen.
Cranogwen – poet, mariner, teacher and editor of Welsh-language magazine Y Frythones – was commemorated with a statue by Sebastien Boyesen in her hometown of Llangrannog in 2023. She appears to have only had relationships with women (her life partner Jane Thomas, and another love interest, Fanny Rees) so can be claimed a lesbian by today's understanding. This is not always included in her history, although the campaign has increased public knowledge of her queerness.
Margaret Haig Thomas (1883–1958), Viscountess Rhondda
c.1930
Alice Mary Burton (1892–1973) 
The same could be said for Lady Rhondda – suffragette, feminist, and lesbian – whose female partners included journalist Helen Archdale and writer Theodora Bosanquet. Lady Rhondda's statue by Jane Robbins was unveiled in Newport in September 2024. It is important to remember that when same-sex relationships are erased from history, the identities and stories of the women they loved are also erased.
Lady Rhondda, Margaret Haig Thomas (1883–1958)
2024
Jane Robbins (b.1962) and Castle Fine Arts 
Queer Welsh women have been represented in art for centuries, though not always in plain sight. Their 'queerness' is perhaps best represented when they had agency in their portrayal: Gwen John's self-portrait is an example of self-agency, whereas the Ladies of Llangollen were depicted without their permission. Today, LGBTQ+ people can more openly depict themselves in art, but there is much more to research in Welsh queer history. Art can bring these stories to light, and help us better acknowledge the role queer women have played in our culture and society.
Mair Jones, historian and writer
This content was supported by Welsh Government funding
Further reading
Jane Aaron, Cranogwen (Dawn Dweud), Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 2023
Fiona Brideoake, The Ladies of Llangollen, Bucknell University Press, 2017
Alicia Foster, Modern Women Artists: Nina Hamnett, Eiderdown Books, 2021
LGBTQ Cymru, 'The Welsh County LGBTQ+ Timeline Collection', 2024
Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, Gwen John Letters and Notebooks, Tate Publishing, 2005
Jan Morris, Conundrum, Faber & Faber, 2018
Huw Osborne (ed.), Queer Wales, University of Wales Press, 2016
Norena Shopland, Forbidden Lives, Seren, 2017
