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Visit Penlee House & Museum

Penlee House is a Gallery, Museum, Cafe and Shop. Situated within Penlee Park, a space to reflect and great for family visits.

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A space for exhibitions & events

Alongside our Exhibition programme we run a variety of community events and workshops. The Newlyn School and Social history galleries change often. Find out what’s on.

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A space to learn

Penlee House is committed to lifelong learning. We run workshops for all age groups and offer a school workshop programme.

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A space for all

Built in 1865, as the home of the Branwell family. Penlee House is home to many paintings by members of the Newlyn School. It is also home to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society collection.

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You can search and browse our collections online. We also have a section dedicated to the Newlyn School.

A Marriage of the Arts: the Garniers and their circle

20 March 2010 until 22 May 2010

This spring, Penlee House Gallery & Museum , Penzance, is looking at the work of two lesser-known but nevertheless central figures of the later Newlyn School – printmaker Geoffrey Garnier and his painter wife, Jill – and putting their work in the context of some of their more famous friends and colleagues.

Geoffrey Garnier was the only Newlyn artist to devote himself entirely to the art of print-making. Educated at Charterhouse and trained as an engineer, he took a post in Canada in 1907 but soon abandoned it to go prospecting for gold in the frozen north.  On his return to England, he studied at the Bushey School of Art and in 1913 joined the Forbes School of Art at Newlyn.

By sheer coincidence, his cousin Jill Blyth arrived at the school in the same year. They were immediately attracted to each other.  The guest list at Geoffrey’s parties, given in his studio at Stanhope Forbes’ former home, read like a Who’s Who in Art: Lamorna Birch, Laura and Harold Knight, Charles and Ruth Simpson, Harold Harvey, his wife Gertrude and her beautiful sister Sophie Bodinnar, Frank Dobson the sculptor, Dod and Ernest Procter and Alfred Munnings and his wife Florence.

Geoffrey and Jill married in 1917 while he was serving in the Navy, and after the First World War settled in Newlyn, where they remained for the rest of their lives.  They bought Orchard Cottage, high above the harbour with glorious views across the bay to St Michael’s Mount, and built a studio each in the steeply sloping garden.

Geoffrey soon gained international recognition for his prints.  He worked in dry-point, line engraving, etching, mezzotint and particularly aquatint, developing new processes and rediscovering old methods. Favourite subjects were the sailing ships of the great era of British sea power, but he also produced Cornish landscapes and sporting scenes, as well as charming studies of children at play and colourful oriental prints.  Unlike the artist wives of some of her contemporaries, Jill continued to paint despite the demands of domesticity, and produced portraits of her children and friends, landscapes and still lives, making a record of the times.

Geoffrey’s versatility extended to calligraphy, bookbinding and the writing of fiction.  He kept a boat in the harbour and was close to the fishing community of the village.  When its old cottages were threatened with demolition by the local council, he took a leading part in the campaign to save them, culminating in the petition delivered to parliament by the fishing vessel Rosebud.  Although most of his work looks back to the past or celebrates what was unchanging in Cornish life, he had a love of fast cars, and the garage at Orchard Cottage housed at various times such exotic makes as Benz, Delage and Austro-Daimler.The exhibition is the first ever survey of the lives and works of this artistic couple and shows their remarkable work in the context of that of their artist friends, including Stanhope Forbes, Laura and Harold Knight, Harold Harvey, Dod Procter, Alfred Munnings, Seal Weatherby and Lamorna Birch.  

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Visit Us

Penlee House is a beautiful art gallery and museum, set within sub-tropical gardens, with a great café.

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Exhibitions

Our vibrant exhibition programme celebrates the nationally important art and history of West Cornwall.

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Learning

From school visits to family activities, talks and walks, there are plenty of learning opportunities at Penlee House.

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Our Café

Enjoy a delicious lunch or coffee at the Orangery Café, with its sunny terrace overlooking the park.

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