St. Ives Impressionist School

St Ives, with its dramatic coastline, unique light and fishing community, has long attracted artists. As early as May 1889 the Daily Telegraph suggested that Louis Grier and Julius Olsson were building a ‘St Ives School of Painting’ and a year later the St Ives Arts Club was formed. In 1895 Olsson and Grier started to take on students and soon afterwards formed the Cornish School of Landscape, Figure and Sea Painting in St Ives. Pupils included John Anthony Park, Mary McCrossan, Richard Hayley Lever and Robert Borlase Smart. Around this new generation of artists, the original St Ives school, a contemporary of the Newlyn school, formed and flourished. The two colonies of artists maintained a healthy competitiveness, including an annual cricket match. Today St Ives artists such as Julius Olsson and John Anthony Park and Dorothea Sharp are acknowledged as leading British Impressionists. You can view all our St Ives Impressionist works here on cornishmasters.com, or visit the Cornish Masters Art Gallery in St Ives.