The St Ives School refers to a group of artists living and working in the Cornish town of St Ives.Tate St Ives, St Ives School

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Accessed 9 September 2017. The term is often used to refer to the 20th century groups which sprung up after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

around such artists as Borlase Smart, however there was considerable artistic activity there from the late 19th Century onwards.

History

The town became a magnet for artists following the extension to west

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in 1877. Painter

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

and his pupils,

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

and

Mortimer Mempes Mortimer Luddington Menpes (22 February 1855 – 1 April 1938) was an Australian-born British painter, author, printmaker and illustrator. Life Menpes was born in Port Adelaide, South Australia, the second son of property developer James ...

, arrived in 1884, and spent the winter in the town.The Early Artists' Colony
from St Ives Society of Artists.

The Sloop Inn The Sloop Inn is an inn in St Ives, Cornwall, England, located on the wharf. It is one of the oldest inns in Cornwall, the public house is dated to "circa 1312" although the present building was built in the 17th or 18th century. Made of grani ...

in St Ives, located on the wharf, was the favourite haunt of Victorian artists including Louis Grier. Many of his paintings hung there in earlier years.

Albert Julius Olsson Albert Julius Olsson (1 February 1864 – 7 September 1942) was a British maritime artist and keen yachtsman. Olsson cruised with his yacht most summers, and The Studio commented: 'He knows the way from the Scillies to the Isle of Wight ...

and Louis Grier opened the town's first art school in 1888, and were later joined by

Algernon Talmage Algernon Mayow Talmage (23 February 1871– 14 September 1939) was a British Impressionist painter. Life and Education Algernon Talmage was born in Fifield, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. John Mayow Talmage, a clergyman of Cornish stoc ...

. Talmage lived and worked in his studio (then called 'The Cabin', located on Westcotts Quay, St Ives).

John Noble Barlow John Noble Barlow (1861–1917) was a prominent English artist at the turn of the twentieth century, known predominantly as a landscape and seascape painter. Biography John Barlow was born in Manchester, England in 1861. He enrolled at the Aca ...

settled in St Ives in 1892, although later, he had a studio in the Lamorna Valley, Cornwall.

Thomas Millie Dow Thomas Millie Dow (28 October 1848 – 3 July 1919) was a Scottish artist and member of the Glasgow Boys school. He was a member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the New English Art Club. Early life and education ...

moved with his family to St Ives in 1894, where Dow joined his friends and fellow painters Louis Grier and Lowell Dyer as members of the St Ives Art Club.

Expatriate artists

American Impressionist painters Edward Emerson Simmons and

Howard Russell Butler Howard Russell Butler (March 3, 1856 – May 20, 1934) was an American painter and founder of the American Fine Arts Society. Butler persuaded Andrew Carnegie to fund the construction of Carnegie Lake near Princeton University, supervised the con ...

came to St Ives in 1886, and founded a studio at

Porthmeor Porthmeor (from kw, Porth Meur, meaning "large cove") is a hamlet that consists of two farms, Higher and Lower Porthmeor, in the parish of Zennor in Cornwall, England. It should not be confused with Porthmeor beach at St Ives. Higher Porthmeor ...

. Butler stayed for two summers, but Simmons and his wife, artist Vesta Simmons, lived and painted in the area until 1891. Swedish artist

Anders Zorn Anders Leonard Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was a Swedish painter. He attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. Among Zorn's portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American ...

painted in St Ives, 1887–88, and his ''Fish Market, St Ives'' won a Gold Medal at the 1889 Paris Salon. American painters Sydney Laurence and Alexandrina Dupre honeymooned in St Ives in Summer 1889, and their stay in the fishing village and

art colony An art colony, also known as an artists' colony, can be defined two ways. Its most liberal description refers to the organic congregation of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, often drawn by areas of natural beauty, the prior existence o ...

eventually extended for nearly fifteen years. Canadian painter

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

came to St Ives in 1899, and studied under Olsson and Talmage. Australian painter

Hayley Lever Richard Hayley Lever (28 September 1876 – 6 December 1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life and wor ...

first came to St Ives in 1900, married a local woman, Aida Gale, in 1905, and painted there until their 1914 emigration to the United States, while another Australian

E. Phillips Fox Emanuel Phillips Fox (12 March 1865 – 8 October 1915) was an Australian impressionist painter. After studying at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne, Fox travelled to Paris to study in 1886. He remained in Europe until 1 ...

met his wife-to-be, artist

Ethel Carrick Ethel Carrick, later Ethel Carrick Fox (7 February 1872 – 17 June 1952) was an English Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Much of her career was spent in France and in Australia, where she was associated with the movement known as ...

, there in 1903. American painter

Walter Elmer Schofield Walter Elmer Schofield (September 10, 1866 – March 1, 1944) was an American Impressionist landscape and marine painter. Although he never lived in New Hope or Bucks County, Schofield is regarded as one of the Pennsylvania Impressionists ...

and his wife made St Ives their residence from 1903 to 1907, lived in

Perranporth Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...

after World War I, and retired to

Breage Breage or Breaca (with many variant spellings) is a saint venerated in Cornwall and South West England. According to her late hagiography, she was an Irish nun of the 5th or 6th century who founded a church in Cornwall. The village and civil pari ...

in 1937.David Tovey, ''Creating A Splash - The St. Ives Society of Artists - The First 25 Years (1927–1952)'' (Hilmarton Manor Press, 2003). Schofield recommended the area to fellow American painters George Oberteuffer, Frank Shill and

Frederick Judd Waugh Frederick Judd Waugh (September 13, 1861 in Bordentown, New Jersey – September 10, 1940) was an American artist, primarily known as a marine artist. During World War I, he designed ship camouflage for the U.S. Navy, under the direction of Ever ...

. File:Julius Olsson - Plateada luz de luna en St Ives.jpg, Julius Olsson, ''Silver Moonlight, St Ives Bay'',

Southampton City Art Gallery The Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road. The gallery opened in 1939 with much of the initial funding from the gallery coming from two bequests, o ...

, UK File:Algernon Mayow Talmage-Marina.jpg, Algernon Talmage, ''Marine'',

Bushey Museum Bushey Museum is in Bushey, Hertfordshire. It was officially opened as a volunteer-run museum in October 1993, having achieved Full Registration with the Museums and Galleries Commission. In the week prior to opening, the Museum won joint fir ...

, Hertfordshire, UK File:John Noble Barlow Cliff Scene.jpg, John Noble Barlow, ''Cliff Scene'',

Royal Cornwall Museum The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro holds an extensive mineral collection rooted in Cornwall's mining and engineering heritage (including much of the mineral collection of Philip Rashleigh). The county's artistic heritage is reflected in the mus ...

, Truro, UK File:Thomas Millie Dow - St Ives Harbour.jpg, Thomas Millie Dow, ''St Ives Harbour'', File:'Low Tide, St. Ives Harbor' by Edward Emerson Simmons, 1887.jpg, Edward Simmons, ''Low Tide, St Ives Harbor'', private collection File:Yellow Sweater.jpg, Howard Russell Baker, ''Yellow Sweater'', private collection File:Anders Zorn - Fiskmarknad i St. Ives.jpg, Anders Zorn, ''Fish Market, St Ives'', private collection File:Brooklyn Museum - Winter St. Ives - Hayley Lever - overall.jpg, Hayley Lever, ''Winter in St Ives'',

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, New York City File:Waugh Southwesterly Gale, St Ives SAAM-1909 9 3 1.jpg, Frederick Judd Waugh, ''Southwesterly Gale, St Ives'',

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, Washington, D.C.

Post-WWI

Barbara Hepworth (1966) by Erling Mandelmann

In 1920

Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...

and

Shoji Hamada A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of Transparency and translucency, translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaqu ...

set up a pottery in St Ives, creating a further international art connection for the town. In 1928

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, Order of Merit, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract art, abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was ...

and Christopher Wood visited St Ives where they were impressed by the work of local artist

Alfred Wallis Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was a British fisherman and artist known for his port landscapes and shipping scenes painted in a naïve style. Having no artistic training, he began painting at the age of 70, using househol ...

. This started another strand in the development of the Cornish fishing port as an artists' colony. The St Ives School of Painting was established in the historic Porthmeor studios at the centre of St Ives' artists' quarter in 1938 by Borlase Smart and Leonard Fuller. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1939, Ben Nicholson and his then wife the sculptor

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

settled in St Ives, establishing an outpost for the abstract avant-garde movement in west Cornwall. They were soon joined by the prominent Russian Constructivist sculptor

Naum Gabo Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...

. After the war ended, a new and younger generation of artists emerged, led by Hepworth and Nicholson (Gabo departed in 1946). From about 1950 a group of younger artists gathered in St Ives who included

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age ...

, John Wells,

Roger Hilton Roger Hilton CBE (1911–1975) was a pioneer of abstract art in post-Second World War Britain. Often associated with the 'middle generation' of St Ives painters – Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon & Bryan Wynter – he spent much o ...

Bryan Wynter Bryan Herbert Wynter (8 September 1915 – 2 February 1975)Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...

Terry Frost Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...

, Alexander Mackenzie,

Harry Ousey Frederick Henry Ousey (1915–1985) was a British post-modernist painter whose work has been described as "very important in the 20th century British art scene", and exhibited across Europe. Early life Ousey was born in Longsight, Manchester, on ...

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Order of the British Empire, CBE (8 June 1912 – 26 January 2004) was one of the foremost British Abstract art, abstract artists, a member of the influential Penwith Society of Arts. Early life Wilhelmina Barns-Graha ...

, Stass Paraskos,

Paul Feiler Paul Feiler (30 April 1918 – 8 July 2013) was a German-born artist who was a prominent member of the St Ives School of art: he has pictures hanging in major art galleries across the world. Early life Paul Feiler was born in 1918 in Frankf ...

, and Karl Weschke together with the pioneer modern potter,

(Nicholson departed in 1958), and including, for a while, Sven Berlin. It is with this group, together with Hepworth and Nicholson, that the term 'St Ives School' is particularly associated. A 2010 ninety-minute BBC 4 film, "The Art of Cornwall," presented by

James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', ''The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performanc ...

explored in some detail the lives and works of many of the key figures and the contributions they made in establishing St Ives as a major centre of British art from the 1920s onwards. Helen Hoyle's review of this programmeHelen Hoyle, ''review of The Art of Cornwall''
artcornwall.org. Accessed 9 September 2017 is also very informative.

St Ives School today

The heyday of the St Ives School was in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1993, the

Tate St Ives Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture ...

, a new, purpose-built art gallery overlooking Porthmeor Beach, was opened which exhibits the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

collection of St Ives School art.

References

External links