Penlee House Gallery & Museum is pleased to announce the opening of its second ‘Village in Focus’ exhibition, looking at Newlyn alongside a companion exhibition on Mousehole, which opened in November.
Having been the focal point for one of Britain’s most important art colonies, aspects of 19th century Newlyn are familiar to art lovers throughout the world, but this exhibition puts those much-loved paintings into the context of its wider history. Writing in 1536, John Leland described the village as ‘a poor fisher town, and hath only a quay for ships and boats with a little succor of land water’, going on to add ‘Newlin [sic] is an hamlet of Mousehole’. Nevertheless, Newlyn overtook Mousehole in size and population 400 years ago, and has nearly as long a history: the place name first occurs in written records in 1279, only thirty-seven years after Mousehole – and three years before Penzance! The original name was Lulyn, Cornish for ‘fleet pool’ – the safe anchorage of Gwavas Lake. The port prospered and by the mid 16th century it looked as if Newlyn would become the chief port in Mount’s Bay. However, it was to Marazion and Penzance that town charters were presented in 1595 and 1614 respectively.
Famous former residents of Newlyn include William Gwavas, who tried to keep the Cornish language alive in the 17th and 18th centuries; the Chartist (social reformer) William Lovett; Mary Kelynack who, aged 84, famously walked to London to see the Great Exhibition in 1851, and the valiant crew of the fishing lugger Mystery, who sailed their small craft – just 36 feet long – from Newlyn to Melbourne, Australia, in 1854-5. Other stories covered in the exhibition include the Newlyn riots in 1896, when East Coast boats were attacked by local fishermen; the Newlyn Pageant of 1907, and the voyage of the Rosebud in 1937.
As you might expect, art and craft form the heart of this exhibition. The Newlyn art colony was based here from the early 1880s and examples of the work of Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes, Norman Garstin, Tom and Caroline Gotch, Harold Harvey, Walter Langley and many others will be on show. From 1899 to1939, Newlyn was also a training ground for young artists like the Procters and Garniers and was visited by Laura and Harold Knight and Charles Simpson. There will also be an extensive display of copper work from the famous Newlyn Industrial Class, together with a selection of Cryséde textiles and studio pottery.
Both the Newlyn and Mousehole exhibitions have been presented by Penlee House in partnership with the Victoria County History of Cornwall and the University of Exeter.
