Faces of Cornwall

Over the past centuries, Cornwall has been blessed with a rich assortment of visiting and resident artists, documenting its population.  Penlee House’s exhibition ‘Faces of Cornwall’, on show until 11^th June, presents an intriguing assortment of portraits of people associated with the county, ranging from stiff formal portraits of the great and the good to intimate studies of humble fisher-folk.

  Alongside paintings attributed to anonymous artists are works by the county’s first famous painter, ‘the Cornish Wonder’, John Opie (1761 – 1807), who was patronised by the Royal family and who so impressed Sir Joshua Reynolds he described him as ‘like Caravaggio and Velasquez in one’.  The exhibition includes his painting of a young beggar boy, recently acquired by Falmouth Art Gallery, which many consider to be his finest painting, along with his equally acclaimed portrait of ‘The Old Jew of Penzance’ and a rare self-portrait.  The show also includes a superb portrait of Viscount Falmouth painted by George Romney (1734 – 1802), who, along with Gainsborough and Reynolds, is generally regarded as one of Britain’s greatest portrait artists. 

Newlyn School painters are represented through portraits of local dignitaries by Stanhope Forbes (1857 – 1947) and Harold Harvey (1874 – 1941), and through various delightful unnamed portraits of fishermen and their wives by Edwin Harris (1855 – 1906) and Walter Langley (1852 – 1922), many of which – such as Langley’s ‘The Old Pilot’, on loan from a private collection, and a large-scale charcoal drawing of a fisherman recently acquired by Penlee House – have not been exhibited before. 

Every possible approach to portraiture is explored: formal group portraits mingle with delicate 18^th century miniatures, portrait busts and 20^th century photographs, offering a feast of human interest and aesthetic delight.  Bringing together works from private and public collections, as well as some rarely seen paintings from Penlee House’s own collections, this exhibition is sure to intrigue and entertain visitors and is not to be missed!