Life of a Cornish art legend is honoured

A new book describes the work and times of Newlyn's Harold Harvey, writes Athwenna Irons

- Athwenna Irons

A NEW book is set to uncover the captivating world behind one of Cornwall's most influential artists.

A true ‘son’ of the county, Penzance-born Harold Harvey is the subject of Harold Harvey: Painter of Cornwall, compiled by Penlee House Gallery & Museum.

Originally published in 2001, this revised edition boasts a significantly expanded catalogue raisonné and over 80 colour illustrations that capture Harvey's artistic journey.

It follows on from a major exhibition of work by the renowned Newlyn School artist at Penlee House in 2024, which was staged to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Harold Charles Francis Harvey was born in Penzance on May 20, 1874, less than a decade before the neighbouring village of Newlyn became one of the most important artistic colonies in the history of British art.

Growing up in Penzance in the 1880s, the young Harold Harvey must have been aware of the colony of artists in Newlyn. Like most of his contemporaries, he would have had childhood memories of watching artists from a distance, as they practised the very public art of painting en plein air ('in the open air').

The Newlyners' view was that the artists were 'as weird as fish', but, to a youngster, they must have seemed wonderfully exotic. Harvey's background was far from artistic: his father worked in a bank and the family lived comfortably and respectably in an attractive Regency house in the centre of Penzance.