Eleanor Mary Hughes ( Waymouth), (3 April 1882 – 1959) was a New Zealand landscape artist who mostly painted in watercolours. She settled and worked in Britain and became an active member of the
Newlyn School
The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminisc ...
of artists and the nearby
Lamorna
Lamorna ( kw, Nansmornow) is a village, valley and cove in west Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the Penwith peninsula approximately south of Penzance. Lamorna became popular with the artists of the Newlyn School, including Alfred Munnings, Lau ...
artists colony.
Biography
Hughes was born in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
in New Zealand. She was the daughter of Frederick and Alice Waymouth, and had a sister Alice Waymouth who was also a notable artist. Her family home, a homestead named Karewa in Christchurch, was sold and renamed in 1905 and became the historic property known as Mona Vale. Hughes grew up at Karewa and studied at Canterbury College School of Art.
In 1900 she won a medal from the Canterbury Fine Art Society for a series of drawings of trees. Her parents were originally from the west country of England and she choose to study art in England. She first visited Britain to study with C N Worsley between 1901 and 1903 and also, for a short while, attended the School of Painting and Drawing run by
Stanhope Forbes
Stanhope Alexander Forbes (18 November 1857 – 2 March 1947) was a British artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was often called 'the father of the Newlyn School'.Elizabeth Forbes in
Newlyn
Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''
Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount ...
. In 1907 Hughes returned to England to study at Frank Spenlove's ''Yellow Door Studio'' in London before returning to Newlyn to study at the Forbes School. In Newlyn, she met and, in January 1910 at
St Buryan's Church
The Church of St Buryan is a late-15th-century Church of England parish church in St Buryan in Cornwall, England.
Architectural history
A church has stood on the current site since ''c''.930. King Athelstan stopped to pray at Saint Buriana's ...
, married a fellow student, the painter Robert Morson Hughes. The couple designed and built their own home, Chyangweal, near
St Buryan
St Buryan ( kw, Pluwveryan) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of Penzance along the B3283 tow ...
. The house became a regular social centre for the artists settled in the area. Eleanor Hughes was a skilled pianist and would lead recitals at the house. In Cornwall the couple became lifelong friends with
Laura Knight
Dame Laura Knight ( Johnson; 4 August 1877 – 7 July 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressi ...
and her husband
Harold Knight
Harold Knight (27 January 1874 – 3 October 1961) was an English portrait, genre and landscape painter.
Knight was born in Nottingham, England, the son of William Knight (architect), William Knight, architect, and studied at Nottingham School ...
, both of whom painted them a number of times.
Hughes owned her own studio in the Lamorna valley where she created landscape paintings, often featuring the stone walls, waterfalls and streams of the local area. Hughes also painted in France and the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
on a regular basis.
From 1911, she exhibited regularly at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
and eventually with the
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.
History
In 1831 the so ...
. In total Hughes had some 37 pictures shown at the Royal Academy. In 1933 she was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. As well as in galleries in Newlyn and St Ives, Hughes also had works shown at the
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History of the Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...
in Liverpool and at the
Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) is an independent organisation in Glasgow, founded in 1861, which promotes contemporary art and artists in Scotland. The institute organizes the largest and most prestigious annual art exhibitio ...
. Hughes sold her studio in 1940 and appears to have produced little after doing so. She died in Lamorna in 1959.