The pivotal figure in the centre of Forbes’ composition, distinguished by his black hat, represents an experienced seaman, ‘the old pilot’ – one who can safely negotiate the hidden rocks of the Gwavas Lake (Fig 8). To the painter’s dismay, he was taken ill on one occasion during the completion of the picture and in mid-July 1885, Forbes feared he may have to be repainted.18 Nevertheless his services were retained for Off to the Fishing Ground (Fig 9) in which, having donned his ‘sou’wester’, he also occupies a central role. The ‘old pilot’ thus remained a popular model, and was probably shared with other painters – Frank Bramley for instance, in his small canvas entitled Winter, 1885.19
Close examination of these works reveals that the two artists shared a broad and simple ‘square brush’ technique, applied across the forms to give depth and solidity. Reviewing A Fish Sale, The Magazine of Art insisted that although Forbes was aiming for ‘the natural man’s average way of looking at a scene …his handling is far from being naïve or unsophisticated. He adopts a consistent system of touch, fortunately a masterly and effective one … Undeniably Mr Stanhope Forbes possesses in a very remarkable degree an eye for nature and its subtleties of tone and value, together with a strong sense of style, and an appreciation of the sacrifices necessary to secure unity in the application of any artistic method’.20 Sacrifices were indeed necessary. Forbes must abandon all thought of romantic subject matter and eschew the creature comforts of the studio. He may even have had to commandeer a large rowing boat to paint The Slip.21 Daily he faced the magnificent prospect of St Michael’s Mount, but what attracted Turner, was not for him. ‘Our rustics’, he declared, ‘are not Greek gods, but their healthy sunburnt faces are often handsome; and though our country peasant women have not the elegance only natural to those who have led lives of ease, their unstudied action is beautiful in its way’.22
Fig 7 Detail of The Slip, 1885 Richard Green Gallery
The Newlyn School colours were nailed to the mast of ordinary, everyday experience, to ‘the rendering of a life so familiar to us – the representation of events in which we ourselves might take part’.23 Such principles, enshrined in The Slip, drove forward a monumental sequence of canvases – from The Village Philharmonic; The Health of the Bride; By Order of the Court, up to Soldiers and Sailors and The Lighthouse – all firmly based on the ‘natural man’s average way of looking’, an audacious claim that shifted the focus of British painting just as radically as the Pre-Raphaelites had done forty years before.24 And with evident delight, as The Slip progressed, Forbes registered the appearance of yet more talented painters on the Penwith peninsula. He wanted Newlyn to be recognized as the most vibrant artists’ colony and while painting the old pilot, he noted the arrival of Henry Detmold and Percy Craft, and keenly anticipated the return of Henry Scott Tuke. He was seeing much of Edwin Harris and Chevalier Tayler and was having ‘Langley to dine for a week’ while his wife was away.25 This was the new phalanx that would eventually storm the Royal Academy. However, if The Slip was seminal, it was more so for Forbes than anyone. In later years he often returned to the waterfront to paint the Newlyn and Champion’s slipways and the railedoff harbour walk that connects them.26 Here the village folk gathered on a mild evening, as in Home-Along, Evening (Fig 10).
Fig 8 Detail of The Slip, 1885 Richard Green Gallery