A new exhibition exploring one of the Newlyn School’s
most admired artworks will open at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery on
Saturday 26 July (running until the end of Saturday 1 November).
‘A Fish Sale… Explored’ will take a fresh look at the
well-known painting ‘A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach’ by Stanhope Forbes. The
exhibition will use the painting as its sole focus and will bring its historic
context to life with a selected range of objects and artefacts.
These will include:
a study
dating from 1884, on loan from Penlee House Gallery and Museum, Penzance
letters
from Forbes to his mother from the collections of Tate
a model
of the Mounts Bay lugger ‘The Mystery’, on loan from the Royal Cornwall Museum,
Truro
an
exhibition catalogue for the 1885 Royal Academy Exhibition where ‘A Fish Sale
on a Cornish Beach’ was first seen by the public
preserved
fish specimens from the natural history collections of Plymouth City Museum
& Art Gallery
The exhibition will also feature an interactive area for
children and families with dressing up costumes and other activities including
a chance to compose your own Fish Sale. A tactile copy of the painting with an
audio description will also be available for visually impaired visitors.
“A Fish Sale On A Cornish Beach is one of our most
popular artworks and is usually displayed alongside other Newlyn School
paintings that the Museum owns. For this exhibition we have focused on just
this one painting in order to explore the people, landscape and industry that
inspired its creation,” explains Adam Milford, site education assistant.
The exhibition will be backed by a full events and
activities programme including lunchtime talks on 2, 16 and 23 September;
family-friendly holiday workshops on 1, 6, 7, 21 and 27 August and a practical
workshop for adults on 11 September based on plein-air (open air) sketching –
one of the Newlyn School’s favoured techniques.
‘A Fish Sale… Explored’ will be on display at Plymouth
City Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 26 July until Saturday 1 November).
Opening hours are 10am to 5.30pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 5pm Saturday and
Bank Holiday Mondays. Admission is free.
