Focus on Forbes: Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857 – 1947)

As the highly successful Stanhope Forbes exhibition at Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, goes into its final fortnight, an exciting addition has just been made to the show.

A watercolour study for one of Forbes’s most important early works, ‘A Street in Brittany’, 1881, never before seen in public is now on show at Penlee House, alongside the finished oil painting of the subject.

Director of Penlee House, Alison Bevan, said ‘We were staggered when a member of the public turned up with this amazing watercolour study.  The owner is from a Newlyn family, but now lives abroad, and she brought the painting over to find out a bit more about it.  She had no idea that the finished painting – which belongs to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool – was actually here.  We have since authenticated the watercolour and have added it to the exhibition at this late stage as it was too good an opportunity to miss, having study and oil painting reunited after over 120 years!’

She added ‘Although it is a preparatory work for the oil painting, the watercolour is a superb painting in its own right, and I feel that certain areas of the picture are actually superior to the finished oil painting.’

The Stanhope Forbes exhibition is the largest collection of the artist’s work to be seen in public for over 80 years and includes works from public and private collections throughout the UK.  It has already attracted record numbers of visitors and universal praise, so if you haven’t seen it, don’t miss it – it ends on 8 September!