Stanhope Forbes: from Newlyn, Cornwall to Geelong Aus

I have lectured on Edwardian art history in the past and knew the artists very well. Before the start of this new academic year, I went to have a look at the Edwardians again and focused on my old paintings. Two weeks later, out of the blue, the Weekend Australian promoted Stanhope Forbes’ The Pier Head (1910), now on display at the Geelong Gallery in Victoria. Small world!

Who was Dublin-born Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857–1947) and why did his painting end up in a regional gallery in Australia? The family moved to London where young Stanhope studied at the Dulwich College and then Lambeth School of Art. Finally he became a student at the Royal Academy School in 1876 where his mentors were Leighton and Alma-Tadema. Forbes was one, very fortunate lad!

After spending a few years in France, Forbes returned to London and showed works he made in Brittany at the 1883 Royal Academy and Royal Hibernian Academy shows. My interest in Forbes was piqued in 1884 when he moved to Cornwall, part of the growing colony of artists in beaut­iful, sunny Newlyn, a fishing village. But I must admit that at least one influence from France remained – Cornwall had the same quality of light he had enjoyed so much in France.

Timing was also important. Newlyn’s Old Harbour was extended between 1884-94 with the construction of two piers enclosing forty acres of water. South Pier was created in 1887 and North Pier one year later. The local council believed the harbour was, from then on, one of the safest harbours built in SW Britain, one which could be accessed at any tide.

Stanhope Forbes,
Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, 1885
119  x  154 cm
Plymouth City Council: Museum and Art Gallery

His painting A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach 1885 showed an auction of fish landed from rowing boats on the beach near Newlyn; the viewer can see the sales being handled by an auctioneer. The painting depict­ed fishing people in traditional working outfits - the men in rough jumpers, oilskin trousers, and heavy leather boots. The women wear heavy aprons and woollen shawls, capable of doing a proper day’s work. The workers looked rugged and wind burned, not at all romant­ic­ised. If there was any sense of the romantic, it was the Newlyn fleet of fishing boats which could be seen in the back­ground, anchored in the harbour.

Fish Sale was soon exhibited to popular and critical acclaim at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The success of the painting encouraged other artists to join Forbes in Newlyn, leading to the establishment of the Newlyn School of Art which Forbes and his wife founded in 1899.

The Weekend Australian noted that because Forbes generally painted en plein air, and because Newlyn had better weather than the rest of Britain, the new art school started attracting students who were already committed to painting en plein air. Cornwall’s longer hours of sunlight were wonderful for late afternoon paintings and noone else captured the setting sun as well as Stanhope Forbes.

Stanhope Forbes, 1907
Gala Day at Newlyn
Hartlepool Museums

Stanhope Forbes, 1910

The Pier Head
124 x 150 cm
Geelong Gallery

There was abundant subject matter along the harbour and in the village - people, the fishing industry, coastal geography, pubs and piers. But risks too. In the years before WW1, he had set up his easel on the Newlyn pier when a strong wind blew his painting into the sea. A local fisherman rescued it. The canvas, The Pier Head 1910, was eventually finished and was purchased soon after in London by the connoisseur and patron Mrs OF Armytage. She bought it on behalf of Victoria’s Geelong Gallery, making it one of the earliest works acquired by the gallery.

Christie’s noted two factors that suggest Forbes was insisting on the old world character of his corner of England. Firstly like many Edwardian painters, Forbes found the colours of evening gentle. This was not new. Close of day themes had been loved in late 19th century European art. Secondly motor transportation and farm machinery were being gradually introduced in the Edwardian decade, but Forbes resolutely turned his back on these emblems of modernity. As ever, Forbes was living and working amongst ordinary people, depicting them as honest, old fashioned and free from big-city pretensions.

The book Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School was written by Caroline Fox (David & Charles Pub) in 1997. I loked this book because it focused on the Newlyn School's founder and mentor, Stanhope Forbes. But it also went into some detail about my other favourite Newlyn artists, Dame Laura Knight, Alfred Munnings and Walter Langley.

Walter Langley
Between The Tides, 1901
40cm x 60cm
Warrington Museum & Art Gallery

Who influenced whom at Newlyn? Birmingham man Walter Langley (1852-1922) became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1881 and made money via local patronage. I am not sure why he decided on Newlyn but clearly he was one of the first artists to paint the fishing community there, a couple of years before Stanhope Forbes and many years before Harold and Laura Knight arrived. Langley said about himself that he was “the first figure painter to depict incidents in the life of the fisherfolk”.

Perhaps Langley is less famous now because so many of his works in the early years (1880s and 1890s) were large, painted in watercolours, and focused on hard labour and difficult lives. Between The Tides 1901, on the other hand, was later, smaller, painted in oils, and showed happier lives.

Harold Harvey (1874–1941) was a Cornish lad who went to study art at the Academie Julian in Paris. When he married, he and his wife moved to Newlyn and both joined the Newlyn School of Art. A friend of Laura Knight and Harold Knight, Stanhope Forbes and Ernest Procter, Harvey specialised in painting Cornish fishermen, farmers and miners.

Harold Harvey

The Blacksmith's Shop, 1906

31 x 41 cm

Lords Wood, Marlow Bucks

Of all the paintings Harvey painted in and near Newlyn, examine The Blacksmith's Shop by the Old Bridge, 1906. Note the industry of the young workers and the interest of the passers by, the strong sunlight and the stone bridge. But also note that Stanhope Forbes had painted the same bridge and forge just a few years earlier.