Winter Lecture: The Colour of Cornwall

Join us for the November Winter Lecture to explore the colour of Cornwall with expert speaker Alison Bevan.

The painters who formed the ‘Newlyn School’ in the 1880s believed that the wonderfully clear Cornish light was best caught using a muted palette. As the 20th Century dawned, a younger generation of artists, including Dame Laura Knight, suffused their works with glorious sunshine and the sparking azure of the Cornish sea. Later generations moved away from realism, yet Cornish colours creep into an extraordinary variety of 20th Century work too.

In this talk, Alison Bevan will explore the way that artists have captured the colour of Cornwall, in all its senses, over the past 150 years, through both familiar and less well-known works.

Speaker

Alison Bevan is known in Bristol for her 11 years as Director of the RWA (Royal West of England Academy), and her role now chairing Bristol Museums’ Oversight Board. Before coming to the city, Alison had gained unsurpassed knowledge about the history of Cornish art as Director of Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance (1999-2013). Since leaving the RWA in 2024, she has become an Arts Society Accredited lecturer, and has written two monographs: ‘The Art of the Newlyn School: Paintings of Cornish Life and Light’ and ‘David Mankin: Language of Paint,’ about a contemporary Cornwall-based expressionist painter.

With thanks to…

Thanks to the generous sponsorship from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Image: Walter Langley (1852-1922), Breadwinners, The Bowerman Collection