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Green Waters, Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929)

Oil on canvas, Newlyn School, late 19th / early 20th century. A man sculling in a small boat. Henry Scott Tuke was born into a Quaker family in Lawrence Street, York. In 1859 the family moved to Falmouth, where his father Daniel Tuke , a physician, established a practice. Tuke was encouraged to draw and paint from an early age and some of his earliest drawings, aged four or five years old, were published in 1895. In 1875, he enrolled in the Slade School of Art. Initially his father paid for his tuition but in 1877 Tuke won a scholarship, which allowed him to continue his training at the Slade and in Italy in 1880. From 1881 to 1883 he was in Paris where he met the artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, who encouraged him to paint en plein air (in the open air) a method of working that came to dominate his practice. While studying in France, Tuke decided to move to Newlyn, Cornwall where many of his Slade and Parisian friends had already formed the Newlyn School of painters. He received several lucrative commissions there, after exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy of Art in London. In 1885, he returned to Falmouth where many of his major works were produced. He became an established artist and was elected to full membership of the Royal Academy in 1914. Tuke suffered a heart attack in 1928 and died in March 1929. In his will he left generous amounts of money to some of the men who, as boys, had been his models. Today he is remembered mainly for his oil paintings of young men, but in addition to his achievements as a figurative painter, he was an established maritime artist and produced as many portraits of sailing ships as he did human figures. He was a prolific artist, over 1,300 works are listed and more are still being discovered

© RIC

The Falcon Inn and view up hill with a postman walking towards the camera. St Mawgan in Pydar, Cornwall. Around 1925

Mawgan is identified with the Arundell family, known as the great Arundells on account of their vast riches. Glass lantern slide from a lecture, entitled Some Historic Cornish Beauty Spots, given by Cornishman and amateur photographer, Major Arthur William Gill, in around 1925. He was well known in Cornwall and elsewhere during the 1920s and 1930s for his presentations of stills and cine film to many groups including The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society and the London Cornish Society. The quarter plate slides which he took prolifically with his ordinary camera are, in many cases, colour. These were painted by his own hand to great effect

© From the collection of the RIC

Richard Arthur (Dicky Nine Lives), Redruth. Before 1893

A studio portrait photograph of Richard Arthur as an older man, seated, with a bushy beard and unkempt hair. Richard Arthur was better known as Dicky Nine Lives, after falling down the inside of Pednandrea mine stack and surviving. He died in Penzance in June 1893, at the age of around 70. A report from Redruth in the Royal Cornwall Gazette on Thursday 15th June 1893 states: News has reached here from Penzance of the death of the well known character, Richard Arthur, generally known as "Dickey Nine Lives" by reason of numerous hairbreadth escapes, chief among which was a fall down the inside of Pednandrea stack. This wonderful man was well known to almost every person within a radius of 15 miles, and his marvellous exploits have formed the topic of many a Cornish yarn. With no settled residence or means of sustenance, he managed to exist with the occasional comfort of a "bit of bacca." When sometime ago it was rumoured that Dickey had suddenly inherited a large fortune, he was immediately addressed as Mr. Arthur, and for some reason consented to have his "picture taken" by a local photographer. This photo when exhibited caused considerable amusement, Dickey being taken in his usual attire. The fortune eventually turned out to be a hoax. It would hardly be possible to find in Cornwall a person whose life has to abounded in comical incidents, and a sharp literary aspirant would win immediate popularity by publishing a life of Dickey Nine Lives. Photographer: James Chenhalls

© From the collection of the RIC