1897: French impressionist painter Albert Sisley (1839-99) was working in and around Penarth. He spent four months in Wales at the suggestion of his friend and patron Francois Depeaux, a Rouen industrialist who had business interests in the Principality. During this time Sisley painted five views around Penarth and thirteen at Langland Bay. From Penarth he wrote to the critic Gustave Geffroy: ‘I have been here for a week after having travelled through the south of England by train and stayed three days at Falmouth in Cornwall. I am resting from this tiring journey before setting to work. The country is pretty and the shipping-lane, with the great boats which go in and out of Cardiff, is superb. I do not know how long I shall be staying in Penarth. I am materially well-off here, in lodgings with worthy people. The climate is very mild, even too warm these present days.’ (Roy Thorne, Penarth: A History, Starling Press, 1975)