Beach Gallery

After the Bathe, Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929)

Oil on canvas, Newlyn School, late 19th century / early 20th century. Portrait of a nude adolescent boy drying himself with towel. 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

Church Cove, Gunwalloe, Cornwall. Probably early 1900s

A view of St Winwaloe church and churchyard from the beach at Gunwalloe Church Cove. A ship's mast lies on the beach in the foreground with horses and cart beyond. Photographer: Herbert Hughes

© From the collection of the RIC

Beach, Carter, Coastal, Cornish, Grave, Graveyard, Sea, Shipwreck

Site of the Headland Hotel, Newquay, Cornwall. Probably 1897

A view of the site of the not yet built Headland Hotel, known as Fistral Meadow. There are several people, including a lady cyclist, probably around the time of the riots of 31st August 1897. The proposed site of the hotel had previously been used as land on which farmers grazed livestock and local fishermen dried their nets. The proposals of architect, Silvanus Trevail, threatened to ruin their livelihoods. When building work commenced, outraged farmers and fishermen rushed to the site, where they tore down the wooden works office and valuable tools and planks of wood were hurled off the cliff onto the beach. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC