• JPG

  High resolution images
  Stanhope Forbes, The pier head (PDF, 347.40 KB)

Stanhope Forbes was born in Dublin in 1857. His father was an English railway manager and his mother was French. He attended the Royal Academy of Arts, London from 1876. In 1880 he studied in Paris under Leon Bonnat. During his time in France he was introduced to the new ‘plein air’ style of painting which he adopted for the rest of his life. Forbes moved first to Penzance and then Newlyn in Cornwall in 1884 where he became a leading figure in a growing colony of artists. In 1889, he married Elizabeth Armstrong who was also an accomplished artist. Together they set up a School of Painting in Newlyn. Forbes continued to paint en plein air well into the 1930’s, making use of the region’s astonishing light and picturesque scenery. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy, London. Forbes died in 1947 just before his 90th birthday