The images of bearded men and fearful women captured by the likes of Stanhope Forbes, Thomas Cooper Gotch and Harold Harvey are known and loved throughout the world. Not only are they recognised for their significant artistic merits but these portraits form a unique social document charting an industry and a people struggling to make a living in difficult circumstances.
This substantial body of work – examples of which can be seen at Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance – was built up throughout the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
A hundred years on, Newlyn remains one of the busiest and most important ports in the UK. Today, men continue to battle the elements to bring home their catch, while women wait and hope.
And a century from now, historians will want to know how Newlyn's fishing community coped with the challenges, the boats and tackle they used, the clothes they wore, the fish they sought and the fears they held. Such historians will do well to consult the work of Bridget Hollow Keen, whose latest exhibition focusing on Britain's most westerly fleet can be seen in the port until next month.
Refreshingly unsentimental, the 10 large works show Newlyn as it is today: workaday and bustling, trawlermen at work both at sea and in port, catching and landing fish destined for tables at home and abroad.
In 4 Knots, the crewman is portrayed as a hero, a hunter, stripped to the waist like some latter-day warrior. In Trawlerman, dressed in the ubiquitous checked shirt, he has a curious expression that might say: "There must be easier ways to earn a living." And in Dog, the plastic, metal and other rubbish that is routinely washed up on our shores and which we now take for granted, is a comment on the way the sea is used as a dumping ground.
While no stranger to painting figures and boats, this is the first time Bridget Hollow Keen has tackled an industrial subject in such depth and detail. Although brought up on Scilly and having spent many years living in Devon, the Penzance-based painter has strong family links to Newlyn going back several generations.
Her father's forbears, some of whom were born in Newlyn, worked as fishermen, seamen, ropers and sail-makers. One of these, Richard Hollow, served aboard Penzance-registered Brilliant in the 1880s. He later became master of the 109ft three-masted sailing ship, Pride Of The Channel, which was built at Charlestown in 1873 and was later based at Fowey. He was tragically wrecked and drowned with many others in a violent storm in the Bay of Biscay on his ay home from the West Indies with a cargo of rum.
She says she often thought of Richard Hollow when planning the series of paintings charting today's Newlyn fishermen.
"The paintings on display were created out of a desire to record, in paint and in accurate detail, the current Newlyn scene and in particular because of the changes taking place there," she said. "The information found in them has largely been obtained by drawing and painting from life a range of objects and creatures which I have brought back from Newlyn for this purpose to work on in my studio. I also spent many hours sketching and drawing on the shoreline and quayside.
"Draftsmanship and composition are key elements for me. Each painting has been carefully constructed to juxtapose different components – fish, man, net, chain and rope – often with one being superimposed in great detail over another to create depth and clarity."
Working exclusively in acrylic on board, Bridget completed all the paintings for the current exhibition – some of which are more than 4ft across – in a tiny studio in the roof space of the home she shares with her husband Michael at Chapel Street in Penzance. The room is a mess of nets, drift, rope, fish bones and seagulls' wings.
"I believe it is important to capture this moment in the life of Newlyn and its fishermen," she said. "And I felt a desire to paint some of the current Newlyn scene before it changes forever with the possible demise of the old beam trawlers.
"Photographs can't really convey the detail of rope-tying or fish flesh quite as effectively as a painting and I wanted to show the details of knots and ropes, the beard of a fisherman and everything juxtaposed. I work from life because you can't get very much from a photograph. To achieve proper detail, I find I have to be there and to look at a piece of rope up close, to feel it. And if I can't do it justice in situ I might pick up a dead dogfish and bring it back to paint in the studio."
Having spent her early life on St Mary's, Bridget grew up around boats, the sea and fishermen.
"I have always loved the sea and have always loved being close to it or on it," she said. "As children we would choose the roughest day and go on one of the cargo boats for a trip round the islands."
Her father, Wallace Hollow, was manager of the Lloyds Bank branch on the island for many years and Bridget's love of drawing and painting – which was encouraged by her father – began there. When Mr Hollow was posted to a larger branch in North Devon, Bridget decided to study painting at Bideford Art College, gaining a National Diploma of Design. She later moved to London to work as a designer for advertising firms and it was during this time that she went back to Scilly for a holiday and met her husband, Michael.
"We were both taking a trip around St Martin's on a cargo boat called Kitten. We got chatting and that was it," she said.
Michael's skill in sensitively restoring period houses perfectly complemented Bridget's design flair, creating a formidable team. The couple spent several years renovating old houses, settling for a time in a sprawling, semi-derelict thatched farmhouse in South Devon. There followed a series of renovation projects in Devon and on Scilly, before a move to Penzance rekindled Bridget's desire to design and paint seriously again.
They bought a shabby terraced house at 44 Chapel Street, which had once been a sweet shop and post office. The 18th century building became The Chocolate House, which specialised in cakes and wholesome light lunches in a setting of Georgian cherubs painted by Bridget. She also designed and carved the ornate and much-photographed exterior as an 18th century pastiche.
After retiring from The Chocolate House and still living in Chapel Street – this time in a converted stable complete with a tiny attic which has become her studio – Bridget turned her attention back to her first love: painting.
"I just wanted to capture the Newlyn scene of today," she said. "I honestly feel more at ease with fishermen than I do with artists – probably because, having sailed all my life, I understand a little of their experience of the sea. And I hope that empathy comes through in the work."
Nostalgia by Bridget Hollow Keen can be seen daily from 10am to 4pm at The Centre on Chywoone Hill in Newlyn until September 5. Admission is free.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN