The 1891 Census lists James LANHAM as an Artist-colourman, born in London, married to Lucy and living in the High Street, St Ives. His impact on West Cornwall was strong in that his Gallery was an important presence for the various Land's End artistic communities.
Herbert TRUMAN wrote an article in the St Ives Times outlining the principal advantages for artists in living in St Ives: ‘It is served by an agent for the framing and transport of pictures to and from London and provincial exhibitions and also for artists’ materials. Lanham’s Gallery, although small, is well-known and a great asset.’(p18)
Lanham's was the principal exhibition venue in the town, established 1887-89, with a hanging Committee responsible for organising the shows of work. Fellow artists from Newlyn and Lamorna exhibited together with local artistsat Lanham’s in the early years of the art colonies, much as the St Ives artists had at Newlyn at their Summer Shows of work and the Open Days, and Lanhams delivered supplies of paints, brushes and canvases (as originally suggested by Whistler) on a weekly basis around West Cornwall. Tovey comments, in his Social History of the St Ives artistic community (2009), that 'there is a frustrating lack of information about the paintings that were hung and sold there. No catalogues were printed, as the works hung were changed every month, and very few reviews exist of the exhibitions mounted.'
The Lanham Company was sold out of the family in 1911, but continued as an exclusive exhibition venue for St Ives until 1928 when the Porthemeor Studios came on stream with the sponsorship of the St Ives Society of Artists. The best history of Lanham's Ltd is provided by David Tovey within the social history of the town.
Another important function of Lanhams was as a letting agency for homes, lodgings and studios for the artists in St Ives. In the early 1920s, Lanham's agent had also proposed a management arrangement (ultimately unsuccessful) with the Newlyn Society of Artists to act as agent for local exhibitions, aside from the usual contracts with individual painters for transporting paintings to London. Terms could not be agreed, and the workload was considered (by Lanham) to be excessive, in light of small returns.
Vanessa Lannen is an artist and jewellery maker who lives on the north coast of Cornwall. She trained as a surface pattern and textile designer before studying for a BA in Fine Art.
Raised in St Ives, and after many years of travel and exploration, Esme Lansdowne returned to her roots in Cornwall, settling in Penzance. In 2025 she was selected as 'Young Penwith Artist' for that year, having experienced her debut exhibition at a gallery in Wellington, New Zealand.
Father of George Peter LANYON, a friend to many artists, and a prolific and skilled photographer.
A good friend of Lanyon's was the American artist Walter Elmer SCHOFIELD, who arrived in St Ives in 1903. Schofield's son Sidney Elmer SCHOFIELD married Lanyon's daughter, Mary (Peter's sister), and the two went to live at Godolphin Manor where later Walter joined them and died there. Many of Lanyon's photographs feature in his grandson Andrew's book, A St Ives Album. He held an exhibition of his photographs in St Ives in 1909, and on further occasions. His photographs were also employed in books illustrating the beauties of Cornwall, such as Lewis Hind's Days in Cornwall. He was President of the St Ives Arts Club in 1923-24
Herbert's collection of photographs of the St Ives working colony of artists is the primary visual record relied upon by contemporary writers and historians. In his Introduction to the social history of the arts colony (2009) Tovey comments: 'The colony also boasted a significant number of artist-photographers, such as Herbert LANYON, John DOUGLAS and Sydney CARR, whose camera work, often of considerable merit in its own right, has provided essential records of people and places, particularly artists' studios.' A Self Portrait of the photographer is reprinted on p10. Both Tovey and Whybrow in their seminal St Ives studies employ many of Lanyon's photos.
Andrew Lanyon is an artist son of the esteemed St Ives and Newlyn artist George Peter LANYON, and grandson of Herbert LANYON, the important photographer-recorder of the St Ives colony of artists from the earliest days. Andrew wears this family mantel with great wit and charm, creating pithy and witty works of art in sculpture, found objects and collages, and tells their stories in fiction laced with allegory. His work, both in books and in various media forms, is eagerly sought by collectors and museums.
Von Ribbentrop in St Ives is an exhibition and a book by Andrew Lanyon. The exhibition is at at Kettles Yard, Cambridge, until 18 September, 2011. It includes works by Andrew Lanyon, his father, Alfred WALLIS, Ben NICHOLSON, Alexander Calder and Naum GABO, archival material, interactive models and specially commissioned works by Paul CHANEY, Kenny Everett, Olly Hadfield, Chris JAMES, Sam LANYON, Peter MATES, Debbie PROSSER, Paul SPOONER, Stella TURK and Carlos ZAPATA.
Andrew's biography of his father is a masterpiece of handwork, with over a hundred tipped-in illustrations and personal touches. A list is currently being prepared of all of his publications, many of which are catalogued into the WCAA collection by donation.
In 2010, at Kestle Barton on the Lizard, Andrew presented a solo show of installations, paintings, writings with an accompanying book, Von Ribbentrop in St Ives, Art and War in the Last Resort. Following the opening, a show consisting of home-made films, videos, accompanying and specially written songs, and a fascinating lecture by historian and author Frederick Taylor (Dresden 2004: Bloomsbury Publ) completed the 'exhibition experience'. Andrew is expert at the full multi-media presentation of the art in life, and the lives in art and history. Without doubt, he is the most unusual and original talent in West Cornwall today (and perhaps in the universe...ed. & Lionel Miskin agrees: we reely, reely like him!)
Born in St Ives, a location which would become his favourite subject and source of inspiration throughout his career, Lanyon was educated at St. Erbyn's School, Penzance and Clifton College, Bristol. Upon leaving Clifton College he received drawing lessons from Borlase SMART.
In 1937 he met Adrian STOKES, the writer, who encouraged him to enroll at Euston Road School in London in 1938 (where he was taught by William Coldstream and Victor PASMORE) and who also introduced him to Ben NICHOLSON, Barbara HEPWORTH and Naum GABO.
He became a pupil at Leonard John FULLER 's St Ives School of Painting, and then served in RAF during WWII. After his return to Cornwall he bought Little Parc Owles, which Stokes had vacated, and married Sheila St John Browne in 1946. Increasingly inspired by his surrounding Cornish landscape, he contributed work to many exhibitions and shows in St Ives.
His paintings reflected people and buildings in landscape, but were also inspired by the weather, ancient myths and evidence of modern industries that abound in the landscape. By the 1950s he was recognized as a leading member of St Ives Group, and was a Founder member of the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall when it emerged in 1949. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Lefevre Gallery in London, and in his review of the show, Patrick HERON commented on the restriction he felt Lanyon imposed on himself in his most abstract designs.
Lanyon began teaching at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham (1950-1957), where William SCOTT was senior painting master, and was invited by the Arts Council to participate in the 1951 Festival of Britain Touring exhibition. In the St Ives art scene, Lanyon had a serious dispute with Nicholson regarding the latter's intention to divide the Penwith Society of Artists into two categories: figurative and non-figurative, firmly believing the distinction to be false.
In 1953 he spent four months in Italy on an Italian government scholarship. In the same year, he was elected to the Newlyn Society of Artists (NSA). In 1954 he was awarded Critic's Prize by the British section of the International Association of Art Critics.
Lanyon ran an art school, St. Peter's Loft, at St Ives with Terry FROST and William REDGRAVE between 1957-60, and mounted his first solo exhibition in New York at the Catherine Viviano Gallery (1957), meeting Rothko, Motherwell and other important members of the American art world. He found there a freer approach which allowed for a new lively and spirited style for him. In 1959 he was awarded Second Prize in the John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool.
At around this time he began gliding to get, as he explained, 'a more complete knowledge of the landscape'. He also took up the Chairmanship of the NSA (1961), and was elected Bard of Cornish Gorsedd for services to Cornish art.
In 1964 he visited Prague and Bratislava to lecture for the British Council, and was considerably impressed by the lively cultural and artistic scene which he found behind the Iron Curtain. Lanyon died tragically and unexpectedly as a result of injuries sustained during a gliding accident on 31 August at Taunton. Great interest and respect for his work has remained to the present day in Cornwall and internationally, celebrated in a major Retrospective at Tate St Ives during Winter 2010/11.
One of the artist sons of Peter LANYON. His work has been shown at Rainyday Gallery, Penzance.
A son to Peter LANYON and a brother to Andrew LANYON, Matthew was a somewhat latecomer to the world of art, first attending Leicester University and then working as a joiner, builder and antiques dealer before returning to Cornwall in 1987. A self-taught artist, he began to exhibit his work in the 1990s.
He was deeply affected by the death of his Father in 1964, when he was 13. Matthew's abstract landscape paintings took up the topographical, cultural and personal references which resonated with his roots in west Penwith. His first major solo show took place at the Rainyday Gallery in Penzance in 1997. It included a painting seven metres long entitled 'Journey to the Stars'. He became the gallery's best-selling artist until it closed in 2010. He then exhibited every year in St Ives, alternately with the New Craftsman Gallery (which still represents him) and the Porthminster Gallery, as well as in galleries around the UK and at Tate St Ives.
His experiments with architectural glass and tapestry pushed the scale of his work to the truly monumental. A prolific artist, his work was shown widely throughout the UK. He was one of Cornwall's most successful and beloved artists.
At the height of his powers, Matthew Lanyon died of cancer in 2016. In an obituary in 'The Guardian', he is described as 'a Cornish painter whose passion for the landscape and cultural legacy of his beloved county ran as vibrantly as ore through his work. He made an immeasurable contribution to the art of the region.'
After his death, an exhibition in Skibbereen showcased many of his larger works for the first time. In 2021 a film entitled 'No Holds Barred - the Life and Art of Matthew Lanyon' was released. This documentary features his previously unseen short films and poetry. It has been very successful, winning Best Documentary at New Renaissance Film Festival, and being selected for two other international film festivals and the Celtic Media Festival. The film, made by Barbara Santi and his widow Judith Lanyon, is currently screening around the UK (2022).
Arthur Lanyon was born in Leicester, and now lives and works in Penzance, Cornwall. His art studies began with Foundation work at Falmouth, Cornwall (2003-4) in which he received a Distinction. Afterwards he achieved First Class Hons in Fine Art (2005-8) in Cardiff.
'My process of painting continually evolves within different stages of concentration, one that is figuratively minded and one based on abstract formal decisions.
'It starts with the conscious decision of trying to do something back to front, an interest in figurative painting triggers an urge to subvert a traditional representation, so in this sense I’m looking through abstraction towards the figurative, a way to catch form by surprise.'
He exhibits widely throughout the UK, and at Cornwall Contemporary in Penzance.
Larcher joined her friend Phyllis BARRON in 1923 in St Ives, and the two became co-designers and life companions thereafter. Dorothy's designs were generally floral and worked into textiles in natural dyes, until about 1930 when they found the synthetic colours more reliable to work with. They showed their work in St Ives, and in 1924 at the first craft exhibition at NAG, they exhibited their hand printed cloths and scarves.
Frances Larcombe is a self-taught artist and illustrator who lives in Launceston. She specialises in animal and human portraiture.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Larking came to England and studied at the Slade, the LCC Central School, and at the Royal College of Art. She exhibited work in pen and sepia, and was the long-term companion of Marjorie Heudebourck BALLANCE, and in 1929 was apparently living in Warlington, Dorset. Her work locally is first mentioned in STISA's Winter Exhibition of 1932.
Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, Belinda Latimer lives in St Austell.
Two landscape paintings in oil by this artist are in the collection of the Royal Cornwall Museum: Cliff Scene, Tintagel and Cornish Cliff Scene.
Freya Laughton is an artist living and working in West Cornwall. She has been drawing, painting and making things (textiles, other craft items) for as long as she can remember.
In her own words, she has learned from 'wonderful artists over the years, including Jack TROWBRIDGE, Carole VINCENT and many artists in the McGuffey Art Center of Charlottesville, Virginia.'
The first wife of Sydney Mortimer LAURENCE, the artist exhibited at St Ives in August of 1889. The 1891 Census lists her as Alex T Lawrence [sic], Artist, a British Subject born in New Jersey, America, married to Sidney M Lawrence [sic] and living at Richmond Place, St Ives. Her sending-in address remained in St Ives until 1894-95. Her maiden name was Dupre, and at times she is seen as Alexandria Dupre-Laurence.
Though the couple parted after ten years in 1899, she visited the Arts Club in 1912 as a guest of Daisy WHITEHOUSE, and again in 1916 with Sarah Elizabeth WHITEHOUSE. There is further information about the couple in Tovey's 2009 study of social life amongst the St Ives arts community.
Born in USA, the artist became one of Alaska's foremost artists. He and his first wife met and married in New York before coming to St Ives in 1889. Laurence, in the Census of 1891, is listed as Sidney M Lawrence, and as a British subject born in Brooklyn.
He was engaged as an illustrator and (Boer) war artist for Black and White magazine in 1900. His first wife, Alexandrina DUPRE (in Census as Mrs Alex T Lawrence), was also a painter and British Subject, born in New Jersey, USA. In St Ives, they lived at Richmond Place and one of their sons was born there, the other in Kent.
The couple parted after ten years in 1899, and Sydney settled in Alaska where he is identified as a foremost painter of Mount McKinley, one of the world's highest mountains.
Laurie is a self-taught artist from Scotland, who moved from industry to art in the 1970s. He began his own career with sketching which became etching, and then progressed to creating etchings in limited editions. During the 1970s and 80s his primary markets were Liberty's and the Medici Gallery in London, selected Cornish pieces selected for sale at Buckingham Palace.
He and his wife Mona opened a small studio gallery on the square in Newlyn in the early 1990's, where he continued to show his own work and also to exhibit work for others. He has consistently shown work of high quality, primarily of the human figure and of scenic landscape views of Cornwall, in mixed shows in West Cornwall, following a major solo show in Penzance in 1989.
John Laver moved to Cornwall 30 years ago and has been inspired by the rare light and colour of this western land to put down the landscape as he sees it. Always he tries to invoke the light and colour in his work. His recent work reveals an impressionist style. He has exhibited at Camel Valley Gallery.
Stephen Lavis studied Illustration at Southampton College of Art. He created the artwork for the covers of the 'Chronicles of Narnia' novels by C S Lewis, and later wrote and illustrated a number of children's picture books including the 'Martha's Farm' series and 'Cock-a-Doodle-Doo' which were translated into over 15 different languages.
In the mid-2000s Lavis became a fine artist working in oils, and moved to west Cornwall, where he has a studio overlooking Mounts Bay. His work has been exhibited in London, Cornwall and Bath.
The wife of an architect and the mother of Denys Maurice Orlando Prideaux LAW, who was active as a watercolourist from 1916 and occasional visitor to Lamorna till 1930. She lived at Oriental Cottage and Cappy Cottage in Lamorna. The Laws were friends of the Lamorna BIRCH family and other artists in the area.
Born in Whitchurch, Oxfordshire, Law was the son of an architect but his parents separated when he was quite young and he lived for a while, probably in the 1920s, with his mother and sister in Quimper in Brittany. His mother May LAW (Maisie), herself a keen amateur artist, encouraged his interest in art.
He was educated at St Petroc's School, Rock in North Cornwall, which was owned by a Miss Vivian who had a house in Lamorna. His family probably holidayed with her in Lamorna in these early years. Later he trained as an electrical engineer at Faraday House, and worked in the Home Counties during WWII.
After the war, he moved down to Lamorna with his second wife, Ann, as his sister was now the landlady of The Wink public house in the village. He took up painting full time, supplementing his income with a variety of odd jobs including fishing, copperwork, carving wood and making furniture, whilst his wife used a loom to weave textiles. He was greatly influenced by the leaders of the Lamorna artistic community, but did not take lessons with either Lamorna BIRCH or Stanley GARDINER, preferring to approach the artistic challenges of the Valley on his own terms.
Born in Brentford, Middlesex, Bob Law was apprenticed to an architectural designer, designing gliders and other aircraft for some years. He did his National Service in North Africa, and moved to St Ives in 1957 where he worked in the Fore Street Studio Workshops.
Law creates richly textured oil paintings which echo the natural shapes and elements of the land. She describes her paintings as 'almost sculptural'. Her work has been exhibited at the Limekiln Gallery in Calstock.