Cornish Masters showcases the work of the leading British artists of almost a century when Cornwall was at the forefront of artistic development in the country; from the establishment of the Newlyn School of en plein-air painters in the 1880s to the rise of the St Ives School of abstract artists in the 1950s and 1960s. Explore online (we'll answer any enquiries within 24 hours) or visit our St Ives Art Gallery in the centre of St Ives, or book a private viewing in Falmouth.
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Newlyn School
The en plein-air painters-
Stanhope Alexander Forbes
'Father' of the Newlyn School of Artists 1857 - 1947Paintings for sale by Stanhope Alexander Forbes 1857 - 1947, father of the Newlyn School of artists -
Walter Langley
Pioneer of the Newlyn Colony 1852 - 1922Paintings for sale by Walter Langley, 1852 - 1922, pioneer of the Newlyn School of artists. -
Edwin Harris
Pioneer of the Newlyn colony 1855 - 1906Paintings for sale by Edwin Harris, 1855 - 1906, pioneer of the Newlyn School of artists. Harris was one of the finest and most sensitive portrait painters within the Newlyn... -
Lamorna Birch
Founder of the Lamorna colony of artists 1869 - 1955Paintings for sale by Lamorna Birch, 1869 - 1955, father of the Lamorna colony of artists. Samuel John Lamorna Birch was a prolific landscape painter with 237 works exhibited at... -
Frank Richards
Founding member of the Newlyn School 1863 - 1935Paintings for sale by Frank Richards, 1863 - 1935, Newlyn School artist. -
Henry Scott Tuke
Founder of Newlyn before settling in Falmouth 1858 - 1929Paintings for sale by Henry Scott Tuke, 1858 - 1929, Falmouth artist. -
Frank Bramley
"arguably the most talented and dedicated of the Newlyn artists.” 1857 - 1915Discover paintings by Frank Bramley, 1857-1915. Described as 'he most talented and dedicated of the Newlyn artists' Bramley trained under Charles Verlat at the Royal Academy of Antwerp before arriving... -
Harold Harvey
Most gifted Cornish-born Newlyn artist 1874 - 1941Paintings for sale by Harold Harvey, 1874 - 1941, of the Newlyn School of artists. Harold Harvey was the most gifted of the Cornish-born Newlyn artists and his ever changing... -
Laura Knight
First woman elected full Royal Academician 1877 - 1970Paintings for sale by Dame Laura Knight 1877 - 1970, first female Royal Academician
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St Ives School
The Modernists-
Alfred Wallis
1855 - 1942"To Wallis, his paintings were never 'paintings' but actual events". (Ben Nicholson)
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Paul Feiler
1918 - 2013"The emptiness had a great effect on me. It was the visual experience that gave me the sense of reality that is so remote".
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John Wells
1907 - 2000"... how can one paint the warmth of the sun, the sound of the sea or the journey of a beetle across a rock or thoughts of one's own whence and whither?"
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Terry Frost
1915 - 2003"with the sea on three sides …. I can see the sun rise and the sun set from where I am every day. I’m with the gods".
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Bryan Wynter
1915 - 1975“I find it helpful to think of that moment at which the eye looks out at the world it has not yet recognised.”
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Peter Lanyon
1918 - 1964"I believe in the subject of awareness in myself of place and time and in abstraction as the process of making".
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Alexander MacKenzie
1923 - 2002‘a powerful and distinctive member of the post-war generation of Modernists at St Ives when the art colony was a hot-bed of new talent.’
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Adrian Heath
1920 - 1992“I was anxious to get away from what I was looking at … and to make the simplifications objective and not due to the whim of emotional mood".
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Trevor Bell
1930 - 2017" ... not describing or alluding to anything else, but I wanted to re-create a strangeness and power of imagery I find in the North"
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Michael Canney
1923 - 1999"The essential principle is that ... nothing extraneous is added. In this limitation lies the creative challenge”.
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Christopher Wood
1901 - 1930"... the coastline is arid with huge rocks and towering black cliffs, and little coves and creeks with the greenest water you ever saw".
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St Ives School
The Impressionists-
John Anthony Park
1878 - 1962"the best of English colourists and unsurpassed as a painter of light. He painted like an angel".
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Dorothea Sharp
1873 - 1955"Dorothea’s pictures suggest a near perfect way of life which can be imagined to have existed before the First World War".
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Julius Olsson
1864 - 1942“He did more than any other painter to stamp St Ives as a British outpost of impressionism".
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Falmouth
The Marine Artists-
Henry Scott Tuke
1858 - 1929"This is a work of pure colour ... there is no black, only reflected light in natural shadows - put into practise by the Impressionists.”
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Charles Napier Hemy
1841 - 1917"I have built my house here (Falmouth) so as to paint nothing but sea and ships and do them always from nature. It is sad not to be in London but I think Falmouth is better than Venice."
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Frank Brangwyn
1867 - 1956"The whole harbour was filled with boats and men getting ready for the fishing; it was a sight that knocked me silly"
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Contemporary & Sculpture
Artists active post-1990-
Fred Yates
1922 - 2008"It is the man in the street that I'm after, whom I feel closest to ... he is the one I want to please and enchant by means of my work"
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Elisabeth Frink
1930 - 1993"Elisabeth Frink is the real thing - a sculptor of large powers and essaying large themes.” (American Art Critic, Hilton Kramer in 1979).
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Denis Mitchell
1912 - 1993“A Mitchell is a form that seems simple, yet holds within it a universe of light, rhythm, and movement—an elegance carved from patience and vision.”
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