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 List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

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 counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

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

. 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 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 came to St Ives in 1886, and founded a studio at 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 Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865–1940) was an American Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of Alaska's most important historical artists. Early life Sydney Mortimer Laurence was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at th ...

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 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 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 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 ...

after World War I, and retired to Breage 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. 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, 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 (1729-1811), Philip Rashleigh). The county's artistic her ...

, 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, Cro ...

, 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 ...

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

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

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 opposi ...

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 lea ...

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 ag ...

, 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 muc ...

, Bryan Wynter,

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, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 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 ''Performan ...

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