"The Lighthouse (Newlyn, Cornwall)" by Stanhope A. Forbes

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The Lighthouse (Newlyn, Cornwall)

Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857–1947)

1892 (purchased)

Oil on canvas

H 228.5 x W 173.2cm

Collection: Manchester Art Gallery

Accession number: 1892.3

The title of the painting is rather a curious one, because the eye is drawn first to the energetic figure of the fisherman, and the lighthouse, straddling the pier wall, seems only to provide a background. [Commentary continues below.]

Image downloaded, and caption and commentary added, by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it and mouse over the text for links.]

Kindly made available on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-NC-SA), via Art UK.

But it is twilight, and there is a steamer moored next to the pier, and this is not just about one man, however strong and active. It encompasses the whole activity of the fishing port which depends on his and his companion's endeavours:

... a small boat puts forth in the twilight — the standing figure of a boy telling strongly against the glooms and glancings of the shifting water, erect in the wide boat which he propels from the stern by means of one oar, the grasp on which is instinct with the force born of dire times of stress, though now the powerful hands are only employed in quietly paddling the boat along, while another mariner fishes with the line. The drawing of the curves of the boat reveals all the beauty of line inherent to world-old inventions, arisen in response to elemental needs; and the subtle rendering of the reflections — strong and green under the boat, thin and serpentine as they dip into the gleam — convey a sense of reality and movement further carried out by the drifting smoke from the little coast steamer moored alongside the pier. [Birch 91]

Bibliography

Birch, Mrs Lionel. Stanhope A. Forbes, ARA, and Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes, ARWS. London: Cassell, 1906. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Kahl/Austin Foundation. Web. 2 March 2021.

Created 28 February 2021