History of the Society

1885:
Artists first began to settle in St Ives, establishing the town’s reputation for marine and landscape art. Julius Olsson RA (1864 – 1942) founded the first School of Painting in 1895.

1927:
The St Ives Society of Artists was formed by marine artist George Fagan Bradshaw (1887 - 1960). The 1920s saw a huge rise of working artists relocating to St Ives. Bradshaw was concerned that established artists were eschewing St Ives in favour of London because of the reams of amateur artists arriving, and so the St Ives Society of Artists was formed in order for its members to promote and raise the standards of the colony, producing work that Bradshaw hoped would ‘[matter] in artistic circles.’

The inaugural meeting was held on January 26th, 1927 in Lanham's Gallery, which became the temporary home of the new society. The following year it moved to Julian Olsson's former studio in Back Road West, only a few yards from its present site. Many established artists supported the fledgling society by exhibiting, including Stanhope Forbes and Lamorna Birch, who later became the society's president.

The 1930's and 40's

1930s and 40s: Many established artists supported the fledgling society by exhibiting, including Stanhope Forbes RA (1857 – 1947) and Lamorna Birch RA (1869 – 1955), who later became the Society’s president. Major figures such as Julius Olsson, Sir Arnesby Brown (1866 – 1955), and Algernon Talmage continued to show alongside the Society’s one hundred members.

In 1937 Dame Laura Knight (1877 – 1972) showed her ‘Self Portrait with Nude’, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London . Borlase Smart (1881 – 1947), a former student of Julius Olsson, produced strong drawings and powerful seascapes, and was energetic and forceful as secretary of the Society from 1930. He became an enthusiastic supporter of the more experimental work of Barnes-Graham, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. It was his enthusiasm, coupled with that of his pupil, Peter Lanyon that drew this new generation of abstract artists into the Society.

The exhibition, in 1939, included "ship-builders" by Stanley Spencer, who had painted a number of landscapes in St Ives in the summer of 1937, during the ill-starred honeymoon of his second marriage.

Harry Rountree, a fine draughtsman, was known locally as much for the wonderful portrait caricatures of local characters that hung on the wall of the nearby Sloop Inn as for his work in the Gallery. Following his death in 1950 a bronze memorial plaque was placed on Smeaton's Pier, a unique distinction.

Every show would include the work of John Parke, whose paintings of the harbour in every light and mood are now keenly sought after, though in his lifetime he would sometimes sell them for beer-money in the Sloop. Poole had studied under Olsson in St Ives.

Another of Olsson's students was Borlase Smart. He produced strong drawings and powerful seascapes, and was energetic and forceful as secretary of the society from 1930. He became an enthusiastic supporter of the more experimental work of Barnes Graham, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, and drew them into the Society, as he did his pupil, Peter Lanyon.

1949: The Parting of the Ways

Members at this time included Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975), Ben Nicholson (1894 – 1982), Peter Lanyon (1918 – 1964), Bernard Leach, and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. This year was the time of the ‘great rift’ between the abstract and figurative artists within the Society. From 1947, the abstract members of the Society began to hang their exhibitions in the crypt of the church (that the Society now stands in), and became known as The Crypt Group. But it wasn’t until a final tumultuous meeting between members, in 1949, that prolific abstract modernists, Hepworth and Nicholson resigned from the Society, taking several artists with them, to eventually form the Penwith Society of Arts.

Also in 1949 Stanhope Forbes died, having all but outlived his reputation. The small retrospective of his work in the Society's gallery in January 1950 shared that space with a touring exhibition of International Book Design, promoted by that powerful new patron, the Arts Council, and with the one hundred and sixty-three works in the Society's winter show. it was to be at least a generation before his work was rediscovered, and his reputation restored. The events of 1949 redefine the role of the society up to the present day. That is, to promote and present figurative work of the highest standard.

1950s to 90s:
The Society continued, albeit prosaically, through the latter half of the twentieth-century, exhibiting mostly figurative work, with members such as sculptor Barbara Tribe, whose portraits included Sir Winston Churchill and Gracie Fields; and father and son wood sculptors, Faust and Wharton Lang. Wharton Lang is one of the longest reigning members of the Society, originally studying under painter Leonard Fuller, and his work can be seen in the Royal Family’s collections.

2004: The Society welcomes Ken Howard RA as an honorary member.

2005: This year marks a turning point for the St Ives Society of Artists, as under the direction of a more progressive Council, the Society shaped its emphasis away from the traditional and representational to provide a more inclusive position. The Society’s new exhibition programmes feature work chosen by guest curators, and invited exhibitions that are a diverse mix of contemporary visual art.

The Building

St Ives once had several tiny and ancient chapels, including St Nicholas', atop St Ives Head, known locally as the Island, and St Leonards', at the head of Smeaton's Pier. This is now a memorial to those lost at sea, marked by a ceramic plaque by Bernard Leach.

It was in Quay Street, near this tiny chapel, in the 1890's that the vicar of St Ives, Canon Jones, proposed building a new Mariners church, but this idea came to nothing.

However, near Pudding Bag Lane ("In one way and out the same"), on the site of a "picturesque but rickety building" that had been a mariners chapel since 1867, a new church was eventually built as a memorial to Canon Jones.

This imposing structure was designed by Edmund Sedding to accommodate a congregation of two hundred and seventy, and erected by local builder Mr. Toy, for around Ł2,000.

The ashlar stonework came from the Polyphant quarries near Launceston, the "Western Echo" told its readers; while subscribers to the "St Ives weekly Summary" learnt that the granite came from Breage. Both agreed the rood was of Delabole slate.

The Bishop of Truro laid a stone with the dedication:

In Memorium
John Balmen Jones M.A.
32 years Vicar of St Ives
Died March 22nd, 1901

The Church was dedicated at a choral celebration of Holy Communion on August 10th 1905, after a procession through the streets, before a prophetically small congregation of one hundred souls.

The Bishop described it as "a great day for the fishermen of St Ives, and for the many fisher-wives and children, who would thank God for this House of Prayer". However, the down'long fishing families in the narrow streets nearby were mainly non-conformists, due in part, perhaps. to the age-old disputes with the Church over the tithes levied on the fish landed in the harbour.

John Wesley himself recorded twenty-seven visits to the town.

Whatever the reason, the church did not flourish. At it's consecration the building was described as being finished "except for the upper part of the steeple, which is left for a future generation to complete", but in a little over twenty years it closed, still without it's steeple.

The church had an organ that was pumped manually, most economically by a small boy. The author's uncle, now in his eighties, can will wax indignant over the fact that when the church closed he was never paid for his final efforts as the small boy in question.

In 1945 the Society bought the deconsecrated building for Ł2,800.