Peter Ross B.1941. The Young Richard Burton And His Father. Pontrhydyfen. Neath Port Talbot. Wales. Welsh Coal Mining. Framed Oil Painting.

Peter Ross.
English (b.1941).
The Young Richard Burton And His Father. Welsh Coal Mining Community.
Oil On Board.
Signed Lower Left.
Image size 24 inches x 24 inches ( 61cm x 61cm ).
Frame size 25.2inches x 25.2inches (64cm x 64cm ).

Provenance: Exhibited at "Belonging to Pontrhydyfen", Neath, October 2025. An exhibition of pieces that captured the evocative landscapes of Pontrhydyfen and its most famous son, Richard Burton.

Available for sale from big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original painting is by Peter Ross dates and dates 2013.
The painting is presented and supplied in a contrasting contemporary floating frame (which is shown in these photographs).
This painting is in superb condition. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.
The painting is signed lower left.

Peter Ross is a Welsh artist living in England and currently producing paintings about his childhood in South Wales in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Peter was born in Llanfrechfa, South Wales in 1941. He grew up in Newport and studied at Newport Art College from 1958-62 and then at Bristol Art College from 1962-63. For most of his working life he worked as an art teacher in secondary schools and before retiring in 2007, as an art technician. He now teaches life drawing to adults and exhibits his work in galleries in England and Wales. Since his time as an art student Peter has continued to paint for himself. He has always chosen themes which appealed to him at specific times such as conflict, journeys, faces and cultural/literary figures. Each phase of interest and painting usually lasting one to two years and resulting in an exhibition before starting on the next subject of interest.

Peter’s work has been mostly narrative-based or representational, with one abstract phase immediately after leaving art college. In recent years his interest has returned to his childhood and his memories of Newport, South Wales. These paintings are based on family and archive photographs, memories, research and other influences like Dylan Thomas.

Peter has had numerous one person and joint shows. His has also taken part in the Royal Academy Summer Show, The Arts Council of Wales, South Wales Group and Welsh Artist of the Year Show 2008.
He has recently exhibited at the Riverfront Gallery in Newport, the Ardent Gallery, Brecon and the Nick Holly Studio Gallery, Swansea.

Richard Burton, born Richard Walter Jenkins, was of course a Welsh stage and cinema actor well known for his wonderful baritone voice and his great acting talent. In the 1950s he became established as a formidable Shakespearean actor, and was called “the natural successor to Olivier”. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, without ever winning, but was a recipient of a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Award for Best Actor. By the late 1960s he was the highest paid actor in the world. In the public consciousness Burton will always be associated with his second wife, the actress Elizabeth Taylor, whom he married twice and with whom he had a turbulent relationship that was rarely out of the news. They were truly the first worldwide, jet age megastars.

Richard Burton was also a prolific diarist, and a well-read and very intelligent man. He could also be self-destructive, and at times seemed to despise acting and even himself. He believed that he had a reputation as an actor of incredible potential who lazed his talent away. He drank too much, although he did not like drinking.

Richard was the twelfth of thirteen children and his father was a short, robust coal miner, a “twelve pints a day man” who sometimes went off drinking and gambling sprees for weeks. Though there was not an obvious physical similarity between them Jenkins was known as a man of extraordinary eloquence, tremendous passion, and a love of language; the very characteristics that marked the career of his famous son. There are a number of photographs of Richard Burton with his father, back in his hometown. One such is the inspiration for this particular painting of Burton and his father.

© Big Sky Fine Art

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Condition report:

Excellent.
This painting is in superb condition. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.

Additional dimensions information:

Image size 24 inches x 24 inches ( 61cm x 61cm ). Frame size 25.2inches x 25.2inches (64cm x 64cm ).