INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Walter Langley, 'Head of a Young Girl', Charcoal, Late 1880s. Courtesy: Private Collection .
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Walter Langley, 'Study for ‘A Daydream’, ', Charcoal, 1884. Courtesy: Private Collection .
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Elizabeth Forbes, 'Two Sisters', Drypoint Etching, 1885. Courtesy: Victoria and Albert Museum.
REVIEW
The Magic of a Line
Penlee House, Penzance
20 September - 22 November 2008
Reviewed by: George Care
“This exhibition presents a selection of rarely seen drawings and etchings by artists from the Newlyn School including Stanhope Forbes, Walter Langley, Elizabeth Forbes, Laura Knight, Charles Napier Hemy and W.H.Y. Titcomb. From drawings and sketches to large-scale finished works, this exhibition shows that you don't need colour to produce a moving and memorable image.” This introduction on Penlee Museum’s website www.penleehouse.org.uk/ is understated; this is a truly magnificent exhibition. When you enter you find the fine charcoal of the pensive girl, “ A Daydream” completed in 1884 by Walter Langley. Langley, shows here a consistent theme in his work, his open hearted affection for Newlyn fisherfolk, particularly women, partly derived from his own origins close to working class Birmingham and his socialist beliefs. His draughtsmanship is superb and affectionately captures the self-contained expression of this young adolescent patiently sitting. It inevitably prompts thoughts upon the many ways in which childhood and youth were experienced in C19th Cornwall and how now, in 2008, mass entertainment can impact on a productive sense of solitude and time for reflection. Just before, Langley had entitled one of his paintings `Time moveth not, our being `tis that moves’. He was also a Socialist and said of his painting that it `reflects his concern for the persistent hardship faced by the poor`. In general these drawings and etchings enable the viewer to study both the composition and the chiarscuro of the works in full detail. There are also many interesting views of St Ives, Penzance and Newlyn, which prompt inquiry into how the architecture and individual seafronts have changed in the last 100 years. It is also interesting to see how locals occupied their spare time, playing the cello and reading the legends of King Arthur. There are times too where it seems that the approach to suffering amongst the fish community seems either romanticised, mawkish or even voyeuristic. However, this also prompts us into examining attitudes and ideology. ‘ Piloting Home’ by W.H.Y.Titcomb is a case in point –where some degree of idealisation might be discerned. Titcomb was the son of an Anglican Bishop who also produced the deeper, devout simplicity of “Primitive Methodists at Prayer” shown at the previous exhibition. Sketchbooks are also displayed in cases in the exhibition and these too are unfailingly interesting and show skill in the economy of line. Elizabeth Adela Armstrong Stanhope Forbes has several interesting drawings and drypoint etchings in this collection- in particular reminiscent of Bunyan’s slough of despond, there is the book illustration, “ And Making Great Dole He Came to a Broad and Gloomy Water”.Finally there are the magnificent charcoals and etchings of Laura Knight.
Venue detail:
Penlee House
Penlee House Gallery and Museum
Morrab Road, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 4HE
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Elizabeth Forbes, the Queen of Newlyn - I came across one of her fantastic pastel when visiting the 'Degas, Sickert and Toulouse Lautrec, London to Paris' exhibition at Tate Britain a few years ago. 'Oranges and Lemon' proudly stood next to the intense 'Yellow Dancer' by Degas. She was the only woman artist in the whole show and not the lesser one.
posted on 2008-10-20 by Viviane Blanchard