 
Images
:
Edward Cooke Carrick Gladden Cove
James Bingley St Ives
Thomas Hart St Ives from Porthminster Point
Anders Zorn Fish Market, St Ives  |
The following article by David Tovey on the above exhibition was published by
the St Ives Times and Echo on 23rd May 2008
The summer season group of exhibitions that open at Tate St Ives on 24th May
contains one show that will be of particular interest to local residents. Dawn of a Colony - Picturing the West (St Ives 1811-1888) looks at artists
working in St Ives both prior to the establishment of the colony in 1885 and in
its formative years. This is not only the first exhibition of early St Ives
representational art that Tate St Ives has mounted, but it is also part of a
joint project with Penlee House Gallery, Penzance, with that Gallery taking the
story of St Ives art up to the First World War, in its exhibition Lyrical
Light (St Ives 1889-1914), which opens on 14th June. Both shows run until
mid-September.
Accordingly, having waited 120 years for the first exhibition devoted solely to
the early artists of St Ives, locals are now blessed with two shows running,
almost concurrently, throughout the summer. I hope that these exhibitions, and
the two books that I am publishing to go with them, will result in a complete
re-evaluation of the immense importance, on both the national and international
stages, of the early art colony in St Ives.
We are all so used to the concept of the beauty of St Ives acting as a magnet
for artists, that it is a bit of a shock to find that St Ives, for much of the
nineteenth century, was a dirty, noisy, stinking fishing port, surrounded by
mining detritus. Indeed, mid-century guide books recommended visitors to avoid
it. Accordingly, in the first half of the century, few artists painted in the
town. Turner, as is well-known, did a quick pencil sketch in 1811, and this is
in the exhibition, and it was clearly Turner's depictions of the south-west,
which were engraved and marketed by the Cooke brothers, that led the marine
painter, Edward Cooke, son of the engraver, George Cooke, to make a tour of the
south-west himself in 1848. He stayed a week in St Ives in mid-October that year
- the longest time that he spent in any one place - and the exhibition contains
an engraving of his sketch of 11th October and a watercolour sketch dated 12th
October, both done on the beach at Carrick Gladden Cove, now Carbis Bay. These
are fascinating, as they show huts on the beach, used for storing fishing gear,
with upturned seine boats as roofs! However, the exhibition also contains
Cooke's Royal Academy exhibit of 1853, The Pier and Bay of St Ives, Cornwall,
which was sold to the Lord Mayor of London, and which is probably the finest
pre-colony depiction of the town.
The completion of the rail link to Penzance in 1859 had a major impact on the
number of artists visiting Cornwall and the newly elected Royal Academician,
James Clarke Hook, spent nearly three months in St Ives in 1860. Three of his RA
exhibits of 1861 were St Ives scenes and the exhibition includes one of these
and an etched version of another. Hook's main models came from the Perkin family
- Daniel Perkin, his wife Mary, and children Mary and Daniel, and his father
John - and so if anyone is related to this family, please make contact with me.
The etching of Hook's work, Sea Urchins, showing two boys fishing on a
mooring block in the harbour, was said by his biographer to feature a member of
the Painter family - he no doubt meant 'Paynter' - , who drowned at sea with his
father, and a member of the Bowlings family, who rose to be a skipper. Bowlings
is not a known St Ives name. Cowling would be my guess. Again, if you think that
you could be related, do make contact.
In addition to Hook, the exhibition also showcases some major Cornish works by
John Brett and Henry Moore, the two leading marine artists of their day, who did
much to publicise the attractions of the Cornish coast, and the juxtaposition of
these works against the backdrop of the view from the Gallery makes a special
combination.
The exhibition contains a number of topographical watercolours, which will be of
interest, as some feature the old wooden pier, commenced in 1864 and never
finished, the original stone pier, ending with the 'pepperpot' lighthouse,
without the arches in it, and the mine engine house on Pednolva Point, from
which it was hoped in 1860 to mine under the sea. This operation folded fairly
quickly, but the mine engine house was used as a quaint feature by artists, with
some even romanticizing it into a castellated turret. It later became one of the
early studios, occupied by such artists as Eardley Blomefield, Moulton Foweraker
and Millie Dow.
The collapse of the mining industry in the 1870s led to St Ives needing to
re-invent itself as a 'health resort', but, despite at last getting a rail
connection in 1877, it took some time for it to lose its tag as "a dirty fishing
town". However, by the early 1880s, the number of artists visiting increased
and, of course, James Whistler, and his two pupils, Walter Sickert and Mortimer
Menpes, stayed during January 1884. Some examples of their work are included in
the exhibition. However, the establishment of the colony in the winter of 1885
resulted from the visits of the French artist, Émile-Louis Vernier, who alerted
various artists in the Breton art colony of Concarneau to the attractions of St
Ives.
First to arrive and settle in the town were Henry Harewood Robinson and his
Irish wife, Dorothy, and they were joined in 1886 by a party of Americans, led
by Edward Simmons. Also in St Ives in the summer of 1886 was Stanhope Forbes ,
and his new Canadian fiancée, Elizabeth Armstrong, and Forbes' depiction of a
house in Digey Square (now Bumbles Café), entitled Their Daily Bread, is
included in the exhibition, along with his sketch of bathers and bathing tents
on Porthminster beach.
The group of artists that painted together in St Ives in 1886 enjoyed their time
so much that they returned in 1887, with further friends from Brittany,
including Adrian Stokes, who had shared a studio in Concarneau with Edward
Simmons, and his Austrian wife, Marianne. Marianne invited her friend, Helene
Schjerfbeck, a Finnish girl that she had met in Paris, to join them in St Ives,
and, as Helene did not speak much English, they tended to work together, sharing
the same models. One of these was later described by Adrian Stokes as the best
child model that his wife ever had, as, because she was so naughty at school,
her teachers were delighted when she stayed away! This girl featured in
Schjerfbeck's celebrated St Ives painting, The Convalescent, and a
profile of her by Schjerfbeck is included in the exhibition, along with a
painting of Chicken Amongst Corn Stooks, originally owned by Adrian
Stokes, that has recently been bought by Penlee House Gallery & Museum,
Penzance.
Of all the early foreign artist visitors to St Ives, the one to achieve the
greatest international acclaim was the Swede, Anders Zorn, who arrived in late
October 1877. He was already a highly regarded watercolourist and the show
contains his large, famous watercolour of a fish sale on St Ives beach. Simmons
tells us that Zorn, who stayed at 12 The Terrace, had left this on a hedge to
dry, but failed to notice that it had started raining. Everyone thought the
painting was ruined, but Zorn had merely remarked, "Now I can make a good
picture", and had turned the raindrops into footprints in the sand. When the
painting was later exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, the critics praised the
naturalness of the footprints! However, it was in St Ives that Zorn, with the
aid of Edward Simmons, first learnt to paint in oils, and the exhibition also
contains a lovely, freely painted oil sketch of the head of a fishwife, Old
Anne, a model, who is reputed to have sat for Schjerfbeck as well.
1888, the year that brings to an end the Tate show, saw the fledgling art colony
in St Ives achieve remarkable success. Helene Schjerfbeck's i>The Convalescent was bought by the Finnish Art
Society, Anders Zorn's Fisherman, St Ives won a Mention Honorable at the
Paris Salon and was bought by the French Government and Adrian Stokes' Upland
and Sky (included in the exhibition) became the first painting by a St Ives
resident to be bought for the nation by the Chantrey Trustees. When, the
following year, St Ives works by Adrian Stokes, Edward Simmons, Howard Russell
Butler and Helene Schjerfbeck won medals at the Paris World Exposition, which,
as it marked the centenary of the French Revolution, was the most prestigious
exhibition of the decade, the art colony at St Ives had secured for itself a
significant reputation on the international stage, which was only to grow over
the next quarter century - the period covered by this summer's shows. The
exhibition at Tate St Ives, therefore, contains much that will interest locals
and I do urge everyone to visit it, as, clearly, if the people of St Ives
demonstrate that such an exhibition is warmly received, there will be a better
chance of having further representational art shows in the future.
David Tovey |