Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, is proud to be the venue for the first major retrospective exhibition of the acclaimed artist Charles Napier Hemy RA, RWS (1841–1917) ever to be held in Cornwall. Although he was born in Newcastle, Hemy spent the majority of this career in Falmouth and is most associated with his paintings of maritime scenes around the Cornish coast.
At the start of his artistic career, Hemy was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, and his early works include tightly observed and highly detailed landscapes, reflecting the Pre-Raphaelite style. Attention to detail and careful draughtsmanship stayed with him throughout his career, and even his later, looser works are extremely accurate and acutely observed in their detail.
It is for maritime subjects that Hemy is best known, however: he is acclaimed as the most accomplished marine painter of his generation. When Hemy was ten years old, his family had emigrated to Australia (returning two years later), and the long journeys there and back had a huge impact on him as a man and an artist. Experiencing ocean storms first hand at such an early age instilled in him a great respect for the sea’s power and latent danger. He developed a life-long passion for sailing, eventually setting up his studio on a converted seine boat, and his work demonstrates his intimate knowledge of the sea’s myriad shapes and hues.
Works such as ‘How We Caught the Pilchards’ (on loan to the exhibition from the Walker Art Gallery ) show a Newlyn School preoccupation with the work of the area’s fishing community, but his depiction of their working environment stands out as being particularly special. His friend, fellow artist Sir Frank Brangwyn, wrote “His knowledge of the sea was superb. As a draughtsman of wave forms he stands alone.”
Offering the chance to see works from national and regional public galleries, as well as from rarely seen private collections, ‘Master of the Sea: Charles Napier Hemy’ covers all aspects of the artist’s distinguished career. A ‘must-see’ for all art lovers, the show is also a rare treat for any boating enthusiast.
