Description
Stanhope Alexander Forbes has always been known as the ‘Father of the Newlyn School’. His presence as its figure-head, guiding hand and representative to the wider world made him famous but this book celebrates his own work – the paintings he made through a long life lived in and around the fishing village of Newlyn. At seventy years since his death in 1947, it marks the most comprehensive survey of his paintings ever produced.
Forbes was born in 1857 and arrived in Newlyn in 1884 as an ambitious young painter who, like others at the time, was looking away from academic traditions towards a fresh approach. His most essential tenet, followed throughout his life, was that he must always work directly out in the open air. Painting en plein air and as straightforwardly as he could, Forbes was among those who led the way to a new appreciation of real people in their everyday lives: a new authenticity in art. Forbes’ most famous paintings, Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach and The Health of the Bride are national favourites to this day.