Walter Bryan Pearce (25 July 1929 – 11 January 2007) was a British

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. He was recognised as one of the UK's leading naïve artists.

Early life

Bryan Pearce was born in St. Ives, Cornwall, which remained his home for the rest of his life. His father, Walter, was a butcher in St Ives, played rugby for Cornwall, and was later mayor of St Ives. His mother, Mary Warmington, was a painter from another local family. Pearce suffered from the congenital disease phenylketonuria, which affects the normal development of the brain. He attended a

special needs school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

in the 1940s and 1950s and then, encouraged by his mother and, later, by other St. Ives artists, he began drawing and painting in watercolours in 1953 before moving on to oil paint on board and, later, conté crayon. He attended Leonard Fuller's

St. Ives School of Painting ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

from 1953 to 1957.

Artistic career

Pearce specialised in paintings of his home town, and the surrounding Penwith area, drawn in typically flat style, with areas of bright colour surrounded by heavy outlines, like

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. His learning disabilities gave his art, in the words of Peter Lanyon, an "awareness more direct" than pure observation. Guided by Denis Mitchell, he joined the

Penwith Society of Arts The Penwith Society of Arts is an art group formed in St Ives, Cornwall, England, UK, in early 1949 by abstract artists who broke away from the more conservative St Ives School. It was originally led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, a ...

in 1957, and the

Newlyn Society of Artists Newlyn Society of Artists, often abbreviated to NSA, is an artists association founded in 1896. It is based in Newlyn, Cornwall. It was founded by a group of local artists to organise exhibitions at the new Newlyn Art Gallery built by John Passmore ...

. He had his first solo exhibition at the Newlyn Gallery near

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

in 1959, and his first solo exhibition in London at the

St Martin's Gallery ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

in 1962. Retrospectives were held at various venues from 1966 to 2004, particularly at Penwith Gallery in 1966, the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford in 1975, the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro in 2000, and the

Victoria Art Gallery The Victoria Art Gallery is a public art museum in Bath, Somerset, England. It was opened in 1900 to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. It is a Grade II* listed building and houses over 1,500 objects of art including a collection of ...

in Bath in 2004. Examples of his work are held by many public galleries. His business affairs were dealt with first by his family and ultimately by trustees, enabling him to concentrate on his art. In the second half of his career a good deal of his work was produced and sold in the form of prints in relatively small signed, numbered editions. Some of these were small hand-made etchings, with which the artist had a 'hands on' creative involvement; others were full size screenprints made by printer-craftsmen 'after' works in other media. The latter certainly render just over twenty of Pearce's original images, with their pure, expansive areas of specific colours, extremely convincingly. Two of the earliest screenprints, 'St Ives All Round' and 'Newlyn All Round' (both 1976) were printed in black line only. A number of one-colour lithographs also exist.

Death

Mr. Pearce died peacefully at home in St. Ives on 11 January 2007. His funeral was held at St Ives Parish Church on 22 January 2007. An exhibition was held at the

Tate Gallery, 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 ...

from 3 February - 13 May 2007. It had been planned in retrospective to his death but became a memorial show.

Paint Collection Information

The Bryan Pearce Estate gave a collection of his works from the 1950s to 2006 to the Royal Cornwall Museum. These were shown 17 November 2007 – 5 January 2008, at the Museum. Meanwhile, on 12 March 2008, an auction record for a painting by Bryan Pearce was set at Bonham's New Bond Street Auction Room in London when the work "St Ives Harbour 1" (1965), 20" x 46", realised a hammer price of £28,000 (with commission around £33,500). This record was soon broken as, in the following May, Pearce's largest known oil painting, 'Penzance Harbour (all round)', oil on board 20.5" x 60.5", sold for £39000 (with commission around £47,000) at a Penzance auction house, and was destined for the permanent collection at

Penlee House Penlee House is a museum and art gallery located in the town of Penzance in Cornwall, and is home to a great many paintings by members of the Newlyn School, including many by Stanhope Forbes, Norman Garstin, Walter Langley and Lamorna Birch ...

, Penzance. In October 2011, his St. Ives (all round) 1977, oil on board 24" x 45½", exceeded the pre-sale top estimate at Christies three times over, selling for £55250 (including buyer's premium) making it the most expensive Pearce to-date. Several biographies have been published about Bryan Pearce, including Ruth Jones's ''The Path of the Son'' (1976), Marion Whybrow's ''Bryan Pearce: a private view'' (1985) and Janet Axten's ''The Artist and His Work'' (2004).

References

Obituary
'' The Independent'', 23 January 2007.
Obituary
'' The Guardian'', 17 January 2007.
Obituary
'' The Times'', 27 January 2007.
Special exhibition
at the

External links