Help us to purchase Walter Langley’s beautiful Cornish Fisherfolk for Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Walter Langley’s Cornish Fisherfolk has been at Penlee House Gallery & Museum on long-term loan, but now the owners want to sell it. Penlee House has been given the chance of acquiring the painting by private treaty before it goes on public sale. In order to secure the painting for future generations in Cornwall the Friends are launching an appeal to raise £25,000 towards the purchase and need your help.
All donations, however small, will be greatly appreciated.
Walter Langley was one of the first and leading members of the `Newlyn School’. This painting shows life in a Cornish fishing village, with the realism, humanity and respect for his subjects so typical of Langley. An oil on canvas, it perfectly complements Penlee House’s holdings of Langley watercolours. Painted in 1908, it wasexhibited at the Royal Academy as well as galleries around England.
The focus of Langley’s work was to chronicle the life of ordinary people. Cornish Fisherfolk brings the past to life – the fishwife carrying a cowal and wearing a green paisley shawl; a younger woman in a pink blouse; the Lakes Pottery pitcher. As well as being much admired by visitors to the gallery, it’s also a valuable asset in Penlee House’s workshop programme for schools and is used to teach local children about both the fishing industry and the artists’ colony in Newlyn.
Funds raised through this appeal will be added to funding raised by the Gallery through applications to art funding bodies. If we exceed our target of £25,000 the surplus will go towards future purchases.
This much-loved painting will be on display in the exhibition of Newlyn School work opening at the gallery on 15 October.
All donations, however small, will be greatly appreciated.
