North American Impressionists in Cornwall

Artists from North America and Canada came to Cornwall from the mid - 1880s onwards mainly to St. Ives where the aesthetic of impressionism was the dominant artistic movement endorsed by visits from the likes of James Abbot McNeil Whistler. 

Others followed including Frederick Waugh, Sydney Lawrence, Anna Hills and Paul Dougherty. Most of the artists stayed for just a few months, returning over several years, others like Walter Elmer Schofield (1867 – 1944) after many visits between 1903 - 1937 left America to live in Cornwall, permanently.  

These artists were all landscape and maritime painters, examples of their work are included in this talk by art historian Catherine Wallace, along with those by several women artists from Canada who also came to paint the light and landscape of St. Ives including Emily Carr, Helen Galloway McNicoll and Mary Bell Eastlake and Henrietta Hancock Britton.  

The work of Californian painter Euphemia Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) who discovered St. Ives in 1921 is also included - her paintings of St. Ives harbour sum up her bold expressive, colourful style.

Talk by Catherine Wallace

Image: "The Harbour Light, St. Ives" by E. Charlton Fortune (1923).

Age Guidance: 18+

WAVES OF COLOUR & LIGHT: American and Canadian Impressionists in Cornwall 1880s - 1930s  

Thursday 24th September 2.30pm

Tickets: £13.00

A £1 Poly Fund payment is added to each ticket sold. A 50p booking fee is also applied per ticket for online and telephone transactions.