Stanhope Forbes: Cornwall Scenes

A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach - 1885
Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947) painted scenes in Brittany and elsewhere in England, but his focus was Cornwall, at Britain's western tip. A fairly lengthy Wikipedia entry for Forbes is here. I wrote about the painting shown above here. It is perhaps his best-known work and the excellent brushwork is best appreciated in person, though you normally need to visit the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery to view it.

Below are some other Cornish scenes painted by Forbes.

Gallery

The Health of the Bride - 1889
This indoor Cornish painting was part of the original Tate collection.

A Cornish Village - 1903
More of a sketch than a finished work, thought Forbes signed it.

The Seine Boat - 1904
Forbes did much plein air painting, but this had to be mostly or entirely studio-made.

At the Moorage - 1906

Gala Day at Newlyn, Cornwall - 1907

The Inner Harbour, Abbey Slip - 1921
Not long ago, local folks helped keep this painting from being removed from Cornwall (some details here).

The Fisherman's Expedition - 1923

Causewayhead, Penzance - 1943
A late painting done in wartime: note several British solders along the street.

Stanhope Forbes at Low Tide

A painter whose work I'd like to see more of in person is Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) who was the anchor of an artists' colony not far from Land's End. I visited England last summer and tried to come up with a plan to include Cornwall in the itinerary. But with only six days to work with between my wife's Wimbledon experience and a jaunt to Paris, I couldn't pull it off. She wanted to see Stratford, Bath, Stonehenge and Brighton and I had set up a get-together with frequent commenter "dearieme" at the fringe of the lower Midlands. Maybe next time.

Forbes' brief Wikipedia entry is here and a bit more biographical information can be found here, here and here.

This BBC item says that the painting shown above, his "Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach" (1885), is one of the most important works in the Plymouth Museum. And it is a fine piece of work. I know this because I've seen it even though the closest I ever got to central Plymouth was the freeway interchange to the road coming down from Dartmoor. By some miracle it was in San Francisco a few years ago where I chanced upon it and was mightily impressed.

One thing that impressed me that a casual view might miss was Forbes' treatment of small, background figures. He defined faces, clothing and other "details" with a few well-chosen brush strokes using carefully selected colors. I wished I could be even half that good.

The original painting is fairly large, as is the image above if you click on it to enlarge. Even so, the image is much too small to view what I just mentioned. The only solution is to buy a large, good reproduction if you can't make it farther west than Oxford or Bath on your next trip to England.

Stanhope Forbes, Revisited

Ever since I viewed the painting "A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach" by Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) at an exhibit in San Francisco a dozen or more years ago, I've wanted to see it again. (I posted twice regarding Forbes -- here on 14 May 2018 and here on 13 June 2011.)

The painting is based at the Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, not very far from Newlyn in Cornwall, where it was painted. I was on a bus tour of England's West Country recently, and hoped to track it down while passing through Plymouth. Alas, the tour provided no time for that. Not that it mattered, because Plymouth is in the process of consolidated several museums into one structure, and all are closed during the construction.

That afternoon the tour bus dropped us off at St. Ives, a flashier arty spot on the north shore than Newlyn on the south shore of the peninsula, about ten miles away by road. I never quite got to Newlyn, but took photos in St. Ives, one of which gives us idea as to how well Forbes captured Cornwall beaches at low tide. Click on the images to enlarge.

Gallery

A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach - 1884-85
The painting's Wikipedia entry is here.

My photo of the beach at St. Ives, 9 October 2018.

Bastien-Lapage: A Strong Influence

The word most associated with Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) is influential. At times that influence was indirect. The link above cites British artist and critic Roger Fry contending the Bastien-Lepage greased the skids for public acceptance of Impressionism, an opinion that not everyone would support.

But it isn't hard to find examples of direct influence. For instance, Roger Billcliffe in his book The Glasgow Boys describes how several members of that group of Scottish painters were strongly influenced by Bastien-Lapage's work during the early-mid 1880s.

Other artists did paintings in his style. Interestingly, all the examples I've encountered thus far are not French, though I suppose there are a few French paintings that fit the pattern. Here is what I've turned up:

Gallery

Pauvre Fauvette - by Jules Bastien-Lepage - 1881
This is a typical Bastien-Lepage country scene that can be used for comparison to the images below.

"Noon" - by George Henry (1858-1943) - 1885

"Schoolmates" - by Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930) - 1884-85

On the Loing: An Afternoon Chat" - by Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) - 1884
Henry, Guthrie and Lavery are considered Glasgow Boys, though Lavery is more peripheral than the other two.

"Toil and Pleasure" - by John Robertson Reid (1857-1926) - 1879
Reid was Scottish, but trained in Edinburgh and did most of his work in England.

"Boy with a Hoe (April)" - by Elizabeth Adela Forbes (1859-1912)
She was Canadian, but spent a good part of her life in England as the wife of famed Newlyn School painter Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947).

Shepherd boy and flock by Charles Sprague Pearce (1851-1914)
Pearce was an American who went to France to study in 1873 and spent the rest of his career in France.

Molti Ritratti: Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928), one of England's more important actresses in her day, had portraits painted of her by some lesser-known artists and by two famous ones. One of the famous ones, George Frederic Watts, was her first husband, marrying her shortly before her 17th birthday. They lived together less than a year. These and other details can be found in her lengthy Wikipedia entry.

The two most famous portraits of Terry are Watts' "Choosing" and Sargent's "Lady Macbeth." They are probably the best, as well. The two others by Watts strike me as a bit too smudged.

I include some photographs of Terry at various ages for comparison.

Gallery

Photo at age 16

Photo at age 33

Photo at age 43

By G.F. Watts - "Choosing"

By G.F. Watts
Paintings by Watts were made around 1864 while they were living together.

By Johnston Forbes-Robertson - 1876

By Edward Matthew Hale - Sketch of Ellen Terry at Halliford - 1881

By John Singer Sargent - sketch of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth - 1889
Note Sargent's dedication to Terry at the lower right corner.

By John Singer Sargent - Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth - 1889

By Douglas F. Robinson - 1905

By Clare Atwood - Dame Ellen Terry Aged 79 - c.1926
Atwood was a companion of Terry's daughter.

More Painting by Herbert La Thangue

Henry Herbert La Thangue (1859 – 1929) was a Newlyn School (Stanhope Forbes - influenced) painter who mostly dealt with rural subjects. I previously posted about him here. Biographical information on La Thangue is here and here.

Below are a few rural English scenes along with paintings made in Italy and some portrait works. La Thangue painted in a basically representational manner, but simplified to varying degrees and used strong brushwork -- the latter especially for backgrounds.

Gallery

Traveling Harvesters

The Sussex Cider Press

The Orchard

Making Lugurian Lace

Farmyard Scene - 1905

The Festa

Italian Peasant Girl

The Puppy

Portrait of a Young Girl - 1880

Polly (study) - c.1885

Resting After the Game - Kate La Thangue
Kate was his wife.

The Artist's Wife