Stanhope Alexander Forbes, R.A. 1857-1947

Given as a gift to Jill and Geoffrey Garnier by the artist and thence by descent

Elizabeth Forbes described the town of Penzance close to where she and her husband Stanhope Forbes made their home, thus; ‘‘Within the tranquil setting of a western bay, where, past granite cliffs and wild moorland and pleasant fields of ripening grain, that wilder outlying ocean which rolls in above the lost lands of Lyonesse has hollowed out for itself a cup, the primary industry of the coast, which deals with the harvest of the sea, has caused a quaint irregular gathering of slate-roofed houses to mass themselves together. They rise sharply from the piers which give shelter to the small coasting steamers with their gaily painted funnels, and there lie the East-country trawlers, with their tawny and part-coloured sails spread to the sun, and all the varied fishing craft of a busy little harbour. The houses, closely packed at first,  straggle up  the cliff – more happily set in gay gardens and blossoming orchards the higher they go – till the heights above are reached, where a wide and glorious outlook dominates the curving bay, sweeping in from the Lizard light, past the Marconi signal towers to the good grey town of Penzance, this last curiously etherealised and jewel-set when the necklace of its parade lamps gleam out in the twilight, edging an opal sea.”’ (Mrs Lionel Birch, Stanhope A. Forbes, A.R.A., and Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes, A.R.W.S., 1906, p.1)