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This period of transition for the colony demonstrated that, even against an
horrendous political and economic backdrop, St Ives still had the ability to
attract distinguished artists and to inspire them to produce seminal works of
extraordinary diversity.
The period started so promisingly with no fewer than fifty American artists
working in St Ives in the summer of 1914 - a testament to the extraordinary
reputation the colony had gained on the international stage as a centre for both
the practice and teaching of landscape and marine painting. The outbreak
of War saw a complete sea change in personnel in the colony, as artists such as
Borlase Smart, the New Zealanders Herbert Babbage and Herbert Fitzherbert and
the American Elmer Schofield enlisted, and the book features the first extensive
review of Borlase Smart's paintings of the Western Front, thirty-two of which
are owned by the Imperial War Museum and fourteen by Plymouth City Art Gallery.
War paintings by George Bradshaw, Charles Bryant, Ruth Simpson and William
Parkyn are also featured.
The hostilities also resulted in further foreign artists settling in the colony.
These included the New Zealander, Frances Hodgkins, who called her time in St
Ives her “experimental years”, as she was forced by the outdoor sketching ban to
concentrate on figure subjects. Two Belgian refugee artists, the
monumental symbolist painter, Emile Fabry and the Fauvist watercolourist, Louis
Reckelbus, also made an important impact on the colony, as the range of work
produced broadened. Amongst the British artists in the colony, Claude
Francis Barry made an impact with his early pointillist paintings, whilst Louis
Sargent's ever more colourful renderings of the Cornish coast won attention at
the International Society.
In the early 1920s, the colony was dominated by Charles Simpson, who produced an
astonishing number of superlative paintings in a range of genre. Former
Olsson students, Borlase Smart and John Park, were amongst others keen to
continue the open air painting tradition of the colony, whilst members of the
old guard, such as Moffat Lindner, Fred Milner and Arthur Meade continued to
enjoy considerable success.
The 1920s were also the heyday of the etching market, with Alfred Hartley being
recognised as one of England's leading etchers. Artists, such as
Christopher Nevinson and the Australian Sidney Long, have acknowledged their
indebtedness to him.
The 1920s also saw the growth of the cult of the naive vision and the discovery
of Alfred Wallis in St Ives in 1928 by Christopher Wood and Ben Nicholson is
seen as a key event in the history of British Modernism. However, the
development in St Ives of Wood's own naive style should not be underplayed.
The 1920s also saw the dawn of the colony as a centre for the Decorative Arts,
with the establishment in 1920 of the Leach Pottery and the transfer to St Ives
of Alec Walker's textile business, Cryséde, in 1926.
Foreign artist visitors include the Americans Henry Bayley Snell, William
Chadwick, Frank Ver Beck, Euphemia Charlton Fortune and Wilson Henry Irvine, the
New Zealanders Frances Hodgkins, Edith Collier and Francis McCracken, the
Australians Charles Bryant and Sidney Long, the Canadian Donald Shaw
MacLaughlan, the Belgians Emile Fabry and Louis Reckelbus and the Dutchmen Dirk
Smorenberg and Hendrik Jan Wolter.
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ISBN 9780953836383
Paperback - 302 pages - 297mm x 210mm
336 illustrations (247 in colour)
Price £29.00
Postage : UK free, Europe £10.00, Worldwide £10-00 (surface), £20-00 (airmail)
Privately published, this book is best obtained direct from the author,
David Tovey, at 11-13 Mill Bank, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England GL20 5SD
E-mail : dwt@stivesart.info Telephone : ++ 44
(0)1684 850898
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