The latest acquisition by the Friends of Penlee House is a delightful oil on panel by Elizabeth Forbes, entitled Autumn Breeze.The painting was last exhibited back in 2000 when it was included in the Elizabeth Forbes: Singing from the Walls exhibition at Penlee House Gallery. It was sold by Messum’s in 2001 and then again at auction in 2017. It has now been purchased by private treaty from a private collection.
Forbes’s ability to capture both what it looks like, and importantly what it feels like, to be wind swept by a cold autumnal breeze gives this painting a naturalism often seen in her other woodland work such as Penlee’s The Pied Piper. In fact, the same model may well have been used in both pieces.The movement of the sitter’s hair being swept across her face is balanced by the wind shaped branches of the tree behind, and echoed in the grasping fingers of her outstretched hand.
This wonderful painting is currently on display as part of the Lamorna Colony exhibition (3 May – 30 September 2023).
The Friends of Penlee House is a registered charity (No: 1206841), the object of which is to support the aims and activities of Penlee House Gallery and Museum, home to the county’s best known collection of work by artists of the Newlyn School.
