Black and white/sepia (delete as appropriate)

Acc.no: PEZPH : 2016.50.244

Identification

Item: Cornish fishwives, Blanche Courtney (left) and Betsy Lanyon (right) sharing snuff.

Description: A series of Gibson's photographs (2016.50.242-251) of the fishwives and friends, Betsy Lanyon (1808-1892) and Blanche Courtney (1817-1902) taken in the Gibson Mount's Bay Studio in Market Jew Street, Penzance are all staged before a stylised backdrop of a maritime scene with individual seashore props e.g. rope, nets, rocks, pebbles, fish and fish baskets. Apart from serving the practical purpose of disguising the join of the backdrop with the floor, these props also add to the overall atmosphere and give a sense of depth to the portraits. The figure of the old Cornish fishwife was a popular theme not only in photographs, but also in the art of the Newlyn School. Mary O'Neill maintains that Gibson's portrayal of Betsy and Blanche taking snuff is a visual reference to an 1829 engraving of Mount's Bay Fisherwomen Taking Snuff ('Cornwall's Fisherfolk - Art and Artifice' p 70). Edwin Harris also alludes to it in his painting: 'A Pinch of Snuff'. These photographs were probably taken c. 1885 (Betsy Lanyon died in 1892), when Betsy would have been aged 77 and Blanche 68. The photographs were taken at roughly the same time as Walter Langley was also producing some of this masterpieces in Newlyn. Rather than photography imitating art or vice versa, both mediums may have cross-fertilised and were probably both responding to the same cultural sentiments.

Condition: Good

Description

Material: Photographic paper

Production

Method: Printed

Category: Photography

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