Stanhope Alexander Forbes, RA (British, 1857-1947)


The Smith's Workshop signed and dated 'Stanhope A. Forbes/1917' (lower left); signed and inscribed 'BRITISH EXHIBITION/The Smiths Workshop/by/Stanhope A. Forbes./Higher Faugan/Newlyn Penzance' (on a remnant of canvas attached to the stretcher)oil on canvas153.3 x 118cm (60 3/8 x 46 7/16in).
|ProvenanceDavid Messum, London, circa 1985.Joe Marchman Collection, Texas (acquired from the above). Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 23 November 1994, lot 7.Private collection, UK (acquired from the above). ExhibitedLondon, Royal Academy, 1917, no. 189.Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Autumn Exhibition, 1938. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute.LiteratureRoyal Academy Illustrated, 1917, p. 15 (as The Wheelwright).The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, 5 April 1917, p. 7.'Khaki Academy ...' Pall Mall Gazette, 5 May 1917, p. 8.'The Royal Academy ...', Birmingham Daily Post, 5 May 1917, p. 4.'The Royal Academy – Westcountry [sic] Artists', Western Morning News, 12 May 1917, p. 5.'Penzance', The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, 17 May 1917, p. 2.Elizabeth Knowles, Stanhope Forbes/Father of the Newlyn School, 2017, Sansom & Company, Bristol and Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, p. 117, titled The Forge (aka The Wheelwright) (illustrated p. 84).Following his recent election as Associate of the Royal Academy in 1892, Stanhope Forbes was interviewed by the ageing writer, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, and describing the casual way in which his compositions were arrived at, he recalled a 'stroll into the village foundry about some odd job', that led to his recent exhibition-piece, Forging the Anchor, (Ipswich Museums Service).1 None of his monumental canvases strayed from the principle that art should be found in ordinary, everyday experience. It was a conviction he maintained throughout his long career. Even at the height of the Great War, when others were resorting to heroic symbolism, he returned an old workshop to record the activity of two wheelwrights, John Read Trenwith and Jimmy Chinn.That original experience in the village foundry, twenty-four years earlier had however effected a change in his working practices. Early canvases had all been painted on-the-spot, but now, when cramped conditions dictated, Forbes found it more convenient to paint large canvases from studies. Accordingly, at the Ash Coach Builders' forge at Newlyn before Christmas 1916, a swift study of the two wheelwrights was made.2 The present canvas was then completed and although a local 'show day' was not arranged in 1917, the picture was reported in advance and the figures identified. Forbes, reviewers noted, was returning to a subject that had made him famous, 'by reason of the remarkable display of genius in the treatment of the natural and artificial lights'.3 When finally displayed in London, the picture was 'pleasing and accomplished' and expressed 'a large measure of power'.4 It was probably Forbes's evident mastery of foundries that had encouraged George Baker and family, owners of Sheffield and Rotherham cutlery and tool factories, quickly converted to shell manufacturing, to commission canvases of their steel works and 'munitions girls' (Science Museum, London). Here again the artist worked mostly from on-the-spot sketches.5 These, and the present canvas, were among the last monumental canvases painted by Forbes – inter-war village scenes tending to be produced on a smaller scale, and their drama reduced to wayside encounters. We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot. 1 Philip Gilbert Hamerton, 'The Lighthouse painted by Stanhope A Forbes ARA', Scribner's Magazine, vol. 15, no. 6, June 1894, p. 691. Forbes painted two further 'blacksmith' subjects in 1894, The Smithy (RA 1895, no. 372, unlocated); and The Little Smithy, (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff). 2 Sold Sotheby's 11 May 1988, lot 10, which was gifted by the artist at 'Xmas 1916' to John Read Trenwith, the older of the two men. 3 The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, 5 April 1917, p. 7. 'Show days', when works destined for the Royal Academy were first unveiled had been the convention in west Cornwall. 4 'The Royal Academy ...', Birmingham Daily Post, 5 May 1917, p. 4; 'The Royal Academy – Westcountry [sic] Artists', Western Morning News, 12 May 1917, p. 5. 5 See Caroline Fox, Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School, 1993 (David & Charles), pp. 88-90.