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2 February 2021

The Staff Room, Harlech College c 1932 'was originally part of a mural by Robert Baker (1909-92) who was commissioned, aged only 23, to paint murals at the Welsh working men’s college, the largest provider of adult community learning in Wales. The first series of murals consisted of portraits of Welsh 'types', the second series  (eleven detachable pictures, five of which were portrait and six of which were landscape), showed scenes from the daily life of the school, based on a loose narrative sequence of the young miner leaving home to go to the college and his subsequent experience there. Either side of this central composition were four arch top panels, representing staff in the Library, staff in the Common Room, students in a dormitory and students preparing for a theatrical performance. (But how sad that the murals have been/are being sold off. If anyone wants to buy this characterful painting, it's for sale here.)

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