Harold Harvey

Harold Harvey (1874-1941) was a Newlyn School painter and one of the few Cornish-born artists associated with the Newlyn Colony and the Lamorna artists. A central figure of the Newlyn colony,   Harvey was very influenced by the en plein air approach to work, and painted scenes of working-class Cornish fisherman, farmers and miners, as well as the Cornish landscape. 

Born in Penzance in 1874, Harold Harvey grew up in 1870s and 1880s, just as the local area was becoming an artistic haven. He studied with Norman Gaston, travelling to Paris in the 1890s to continue  his studies at the Atelier Julian. Following his return to Penzance, Harvey married fellow painter and regular artists’ model Gertrude Bodinar and moved to Maen Cottage in Newlyn. 

Harold Harvey’s early work follows the style of the Newlyn artists, and his palette and brushwork indicates the influence of contemporary and mentor Stanhope Forbes. but by 1908 he had begun to move away that form and instead employed a much brighter palette. Until 1916 Harvey focused on marine and rural themes, before broadening his subject matter and turning to sophisticated interiors. Harvey was to become the most gifted of the Newlyn School born locally. 

He had many solo shows and even exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898 and then regularly from 1907 to 1941. However, he rarely visited London and instead preferred to stay in his native Cornwall. In fact, with the exception of his studies in Paris, Harvey spent his lifetime working in Penzance and Newlyn.