This early work by Cornish artist Harold Harvey depicts boys walking down the old slip at Newlyn, preparing to go ‘whiffling or ‘wiffing’, fishing by hand with a hook and line. Harvey also depicted this rustic activity in Whiffling for mackerel (1908) and he painted several canvases depicting figures going about everyday life in Newlyn, such as in Newlyn Harbour on display at The Box, Plymouth.

Harvey lived in his birthplace of Penzance until 1911, during which time he studied at the Penzance School of Arts under Norman Garstin (1847-1926) and at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1894-1896. Harvey married fellow Cornish artist Gertrude Bodinnar in 1911, whom he first met when she was modelling for artists, and they settled at Maen Cottage in Newlyn. The couple were members of the burgeoning social scene in Cornwall that included Lamorna Birch, Laura Knight, and Alfred Munnings.

A member of the second generation of the Newlyn School, Harvey’s early work was influenced by Stanhope Forbes, R.A. (1857-1947), known as the ‘father of the Newlyn School’. This connection is particularly apparent through comparison with Forbes’ paintings Home-along: evening (1905), in the collection of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and The slip (1884), in a private collection. However, Harvey differed from Forbes in his preference for sunlight, smaller canvases, and relaxed views of daily life. As Tom Cross writes in The Shining Sands: Artists in Newlyn and St Ives, 1880-1930:

‘Harold Harvey did not seek to raise Cornwall or its people to heroic proportions, as did the earlier Newlyn painters […]. He describes the harmony of village life, the unspoilt countryside and its inhabitants from the viewpoint of one who has grown up there and knew it intimately. His paintings are direct, untheatrical, worked entirely from the object, and were frequently completed within the day’ (p. 169).

The Impressionistic preference for painting 'en plein air', enabling the artist to capture transient atmospheres and the diverse effects of sunlight, thus merged with an unassuming form of Realism in Harvey’s representation of the coastal working class. The old slip, Newlyn is alive with the ordinary activities of a coastal town. The faces of the figures are only softly rendered, contributing a sense of universality to the scene as the boys follow generations of fishermen when carrying out traditional work. In this way, Harvey’s affectionate but unintrusive style both celebrated and preserved this endangered way of life.

Bibliography:
Tom Cross, The Shining Sands: Artists in Newlyn and St Ives, 1880-1930 (Tiverton: West Country Books, 1994)
Kenneth McConkey, Harold Harvey: Painter of Cornwall (Bristol: Sansom & Company, 2001)