Stanhope Forbes is considered ‘The Father of the Newlyn School’ painters. It was his magnificent 1884 painting ‘Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach’ which really established his reputation and attracted other artists to join him in Newlyn. His early canvases had all been painted ‘en plein air’ or on-the-spot, but in the cramped conditions of the forge, Forbes found it easier to work from studies. Sketches for this work were made at the Ash Coach Builders' forge in Newlyn just before Christmas in 1916. The two wheelwrights are John Read Trenwith and Jimmy Chinn. The glow of the forge illuminates the tools of their trade, a pillar drill press in the foreground, two anvils, and beside the forge, a long trough of water for quenching, this is hung with various hand tools.
When completed, the canvas was shown in London. The Cornish Telegraph 5th April 1917 noted, that Forbes was returning to a subject that had made him famous, 'by reason of the remarkable display of genius in the treatment of the natural and artificial lights'.
This painting would have been one of his last monumental canvases, as by the 1920s he tended to work on a smaller scale.
- Artist
- Stanhope Alexander Forbes
- Materials
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 153.3 x 118 cm
- Collection
- Land & Sea