Individual artists
Looking at some of Britain's most interesting C19th and early C20th artists
Stanhope Forbes in his studio, c.1886, from the Newlyn artists' photograph album, Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Stanhope Forbes RA RWA (1857 - 1947)
Dubbed 'the Father of the Newlyn School', Stanhope Forbes was the uniting force for the community of artists who settled in West Cornwall in the 1880s. He was the champion of French-inspired square brush, rural realist painting, giving rise to a whole generation of 'British Impressionism'. With his wife, Elizabeth, he founded the school of painting that re-energised Newlyn as an artists colony in the early C20th, casting his influence many decades beyond his long life. His extraordinary paintings can be found in major public collections throughout the country, from his ground-breaking 'Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach', making both his own name and that of the Newlyn School, to his charming late paintings evoking Cornwall as a rural idyll.
Archive press photograph of Dame Laura Knight DBE RA RWA with her painting 'The Boys', 1910, Johannesburg Art Gallery
Dame Laura Knight RA RWA (1877 - 1970)
A true pioneer for her gender, Dame Laura Knight not only achieved a host of 'firsts' for a women artist, but became arguably Britain's most famous and best-loved artist of the mid-C20th. Her talent showed itself at a remarkably young age - she was just 15 when she enrolled at Nottingham School of Art - and remained with her throughout her remarkable and long life. Focussing primarily on her time in Cornwall, this talk also looks at her incredibly wide oeuvre, taking in ceramics and printmaking as well as painting, and subjects as diverse as circus and ballet to the Nuremburg Trials. A wild spirit, seemingly loved by all who knew her, Dame Laura's work will enchant you, as will her personality, which still shines through from her art and writing.
Harold Harvey with his wife Gertrude at Men an Tol, c.1911, archive photograph from private collection
Harold Harvey
(1874–1941)
Born in Penzance only a few years before the neighbouring community of Newlyn became a mecca for artists, Harold Harvey was one of only two Cornishmen to become an accepted member of the art colony. His sumptuous paintings capture the characters and landscape through the eyes of a local, with a unique warmth and understanding. Influenced by - and perhaps influencing - his more famous friends, such as Laura and Harold Knight or Dod and Ernest Procter, his work ranges from early rural realism through Vermeer-inspired cool clarity, to the glorious richness of British Impressionism. With his wife Gertrude, herself a talented painter, his home became a focal point not just for his own paintings, but for encouraging talent in the next generation.
Detail: Self Portrait, Dod Procter (1890 - 1972), Private Collection on loan to Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Dod Procter
(1890 - 1972)
When Dod Procter's painting 'Morning' was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1922, it made her truly a household name. Christened as Doris Shaw, and part of a nationally-famous artistic power-couple with her husband, the painter Ernest Procter, Dod used her childhood nickname to confound the art world's ingrained chauvinism. Initially trained at Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes's art school in Newlyn, she remained resident in West Cornwall for the rest of her life, though her travels included time in Burma and the Caribbean. This talk looks at her long career, astonishing oeuvre and significant influence, achievements made all the more remarkable in the context of her time and gender.
Norman Garstin by Alethea Garstin (1894–1978)
collection The Box, Plymouth City Council
Norman Garstin
(1847 - 1926)
Born in County Limerick, Norman Garstin began his professional life prospecting for diamonds in South Africa in the company of Cecil Rhodes. When he eventually settled on an artistic career, he joined the burgeoning art colony in West Cornwall, going on to produce perhaps one of the best-loved images of his adopted home: 'The Rain it Raineth Every Day', 1889, depicting the shimmering wet paving of Penzance Promenade. Father to Alethea Garstin, herself described by Patrick Heron as 'Britain's greatest Post Impressionist painter', he taught and inspired a host of younger artists, leaving more than his already impressive body of work as an artistic legacy.
Detail: Self portrait, Walter Langley (1852 - 1922), collection of
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Walter Langley
(1852 - 1922)
Walter Langley was the first of the core group of artists known as the 'Newlyn School' to settle in the village. Initially trained in lithography in Birmingham, Langley was adept as a printmaker, draughtsman and painter in oils, but it is for his watercolours that he is best known. Using this unforgiving medium, he captured the poignant stories of the Cornish fishing community with heart-rending depth of emotion and painstaking veracity, leading Leo Tolstoy to describe his work as "admirable and true."
Detail: Portrait of Elizabeth Forbes c.1890, Stanhope Forbes (1857 - 1947), Newlyn Art Gallery on loan to Penlee House
Elizabeth Forbes
(1859 - 1912)
Born Elizabeth Adela Armstrong in Ontario, Canada, as a strong-willed young woman she travelled to Europe to develop her artistic skills. As an already very accomplished painter, she met and later married Stanhope Forbes, joining with him to become the true power-couple behind the Newlyn School art colony. In her tragically short life, she exhibited more paintings than her famous husband, and sold more than any other member of the colony: had she lived longer, perhaps her name would have eclipsed his, and earned her deserved recognition as one of the greatest artistic talents of her age.
Cover of the book Master of the Sea by Margaret Powell, published by Alison Hodge
Charles Napier Hemy
(1841 - 1917)
In the introduction to the book on Hemy written by his granddaughter, Brian Stewart, then Director of Falmouth Art Gallery, described Hemy as 'the most accomplished marine painter of his generation. His intimate knowledge of the sea was central to his art - the ocean's swell, its power, strength and dangers are all captured with a brilliance rarely equalled and never surpassed.' Art and the sea were both central to Hemy's life from his childhood in Newcastle and early emigration to Australia, to his creation of a floating studio moored at Falmouth, and perhaps best captured in his epic, 7' painting 'Pilchards' in the collection of Tate.
Detail: The Artist and her Mother, Rolinda Sharples (1793–1838), cover image of 'Painted out of History' by Hazel Gower
Ellen Sharples
(1769 - 1849)
The extraordinary story of a truly remarkable woman. Born the same year as Napoleon Bonaparte as the daughter of a Lancashire blacksmith, Ellen Wallace went on to marry her drawing tutor, James Sharples (1851 - 1911), travelling with him to America where they both made their living as equally respected professional artists. Subjects of Ellen's paintings include the earliest portrait of Charles Darwin; the first five Presidents of America, and a native American chief, believed to be the first portrait by a Western woman of any indigenous American. In later life, she settled in Bristol, where she was the driving force behind the creation of the Royal West of England Academy.
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