According to the 1891 and 1901 Censuses, Dorothy Worden was born in Newcastle on Tyne, Northumberland, however it has not been possible as yet to trace her family located there, and it may be that they lived there only briefly. One Worden family, the head being a photographer, from Camborne, Cornwall had briefly re-located to Newcastle, and it may be that Dorothy had some Cornish family, but this is conjecture only at present.
In 1891 the artist, age 23, is listed as lodging in Hammersmith, London. By 1893 she had become a member of the St Ives Arts Club (STIAC) and her paintings, some of which were St Ives subjects, were being exhibited at the RCPS (1893,1894 and 1896), the RBA and the County Fisheries Exhibition at Truro (1893).
In 1896, Dorothy Worden married the artist William E OSBORN, who had also been working in St Ives, at Exeter, and it seems that the couple settled in a small village, Withycombe Raleigh, near Exmouth, which became his exhibiting address up until about 1901-2. In 1901, Dorothy is recorded in the Census as a lodger with a slightly older couple in Ludlow, Herefordshire (now Shropshire). In 1902 Will Osborn also uses Ludlow as an exhibiting address for London shows of work.
Dorothy Osborn continued to paint after her marriage. In the summer of 1905 she exhibited watercolours at the Ryder Gallery, London and these were positively reviewed in The Studio (1905). She remarried in January 1907, after her first husband's death the previous year, to Commander Harold Ernest Browne RN of Devon.
Guy Worsdell was born in York to a Quaker railway family. During the 1930s, while living in Hampstead, he studied at London's Central School of Art. During World War II he moved to Highgate, next door to his father's friend Heath Robinson, who encouraged Guy's art career and probably got him his first book-illustrating job on The Motorist's Companion. He volunteered for the RAF but was rejected because of his short sight. He spent the war as a special constable and glass factory worker.
After the war and his parents' death, Guy acquired Wastrel Studio, overlooking Porthgwidden beach in St Ives. Here he became part of an artistic community which included Barbara Hepworth and Bernard Leach, both of whom became close friends. He also had a studio in his London house at 17 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, where his neighbours included the portrait photographer Madame Yevonde. His career flourished, with regular exhibitions in St Ives as a member of the Penwith Society, and in London and internationally as a significant figure in Free Painters and Sculptors.
Both in oils and wood engravings, Guy specialised in still lifes of contemporary studio ceramics. He was also a landscape painter in a lyrical Romantic Modern style, and his works often included steam-trains or their delineating plumes of smoke, as a nod to his family background of railway locomotive design.
With his partner Sybil Hanson (who worked at the V&A) in the 1950s and 1960s, Guy built up a remarkable collection of twentieth-century studio ceramics. He was an accomplished musician, playing early music on the harpsichord. He died from a heart attack shortly after his 70th birthday.
A painting, The Glacier's Lances (1964) an abstract oil on board, is part of the permanent collection of Cornwall Council.
Tony Worthington has exhibited his raku ceramics at Waterside Gallery, St Mawes.
Bobby Wotnot is an abstract artist and musician who moved to St Ives in 2010. He has worked as an Adult Education tutor in art and guitar, and is a member of the Barnoon Workshop in St Ives. He became a member of STISA in 2020.
The artist was born in Eccles, Greater Manchester. During his childhood the family moved quite frequently, before settling in Sheffield. Wragg suffered from bullying at school and at the age of 13 won a scholarship to Sheffield School of Art. In 1923 he left for London with two art school friends. One of these was Frederick ROBERTS JOHNSON, with whom he had a close friendship for many years. Wragg's initial work in London was in magazine illustration.
In 1924 he and Johnson visited Polperro for the first time and fell in love with the place. Frederick Thomas Nettleinghame, a publisher and financier, had arrived in Polperro from Essex the year before. Subsequent to some shady dealings which saw him in the Bankruptcy Courts, Nettleinghame re-invented himself in Polperro as a tourist operator. He set up a business dealing in artefacts for the tourist market, and found the two young artists to be enthusiastic in assisting him in the production of burnt wood designs, or 'pokerwork'. Subsequently Wragg and Roberts Johnson rented a cottage in the village each summer. This continued throughout the 1930s, during which time they became integral members of the Polperro community.
The illustrations that Wragg was producing in the 1920s were for postcards that have come to be known as CORNISH LITANY POSTCARDS. The distinguishing feature of this 'tourist art cards' is that they carry the following legend: 'From Ghoulies & Ghosties/And long-leggetty beasties/And things that go bump in the night/Good Lord deliver us!' Why this ditty is connected to Cornwall is unknown, and similar ditties are found in Devon and Scotland and other West Country destinations on boxes, cups and other artefacts. The illustrations are of beastly images, goblins and other endearing though outlandish figures, perhaps referencing some old Celtic horror stories, a bedtime prayer or moral tales for children. Other known illustrators of this postcard genre was one Stanley T CHAPLIN, about whom nothing is known, and the Polperro artist and historian Alice C BIZLEY (nee Butler). An article in the Postcard World Magazine, Nov/Dec 2011 explores the topic of the craft community in Polperro in the 1920s. 'The Cornish Litany is referred to as one of their first and best selling items. The publication boasted of the artwork of Arthur Wragg in their souvenir line of pokerwork and postcards.'
During the 1930s Wragg became troubled by the struggles of working-class people in the aftermath of the First World War, followed by the Depression. In 1933 he produced a ground-breaking work, 'The Psalms for Modern Life'. His black-and-white illustrations for this publication made a powerful, uncompromising comment on the political and social issues of the day. It also raised his profile to the extent that his work began to be compared to that of William Blake, William Hogarth and Francisco de Goya.
Wragg wrote and illustrated 'Jesus Wept' in 1934. This was a hard-hitting publication, which he intended as a warning on a future which seemed without hope. He began to be regarded as a prophet. In 1936, he met the author Walter Greenwood while on holiday in Polperro. Greenwood was well known at the time, as he had completed his first novel, 'Love on the Dole' in 1933, to considerable acclaim. The two became good friends, as they had much in common, including their political views. Wragg illustrated a book of Greenwood's short stories, entitled 'The Cleft Stick'.
Despite the sombre nature of some of his work, Wragg had a great sense of humour and created lightweight drawings, jacket covers for novels and much else. He and Johnson enjoyed a busy social life during winters spent in London. In 1938 Wragg was focussed on a project entitled 'Seven Words', relating to the Crucifixion. The black and white illustrations seemed to suggest influences such as Hieronymous Bosch and surrealism. Published in 1939, it did not receive a great deal of critical acclaim as by then attention was focussed on the impending global conflict of World War II.
Alarmed at the rise of Fascism, in 1935 Wragg helped form the Peace Pledge Union. Alongside Roberts Johnson, he became actively involved in the left-wing newspaper The Tribune, creating front cover illustrations for the first seventeen issues of the publication. When World War II broke out, Wragg applied to register as a conscientious objector. He became a prison visitor and art teacher at Wandsworth Gaol, and in 1941 began to teach at Beltane School, a progressive establishment in Wimbledon. From there he brought groups of students down to Polperro on sketching trips. When peace was declared in 1945 a celebratory party was held in the village. Both Wragg and Roberts Johnson produced visual depictions of the event.
After the War, Wragg moved into a flat in London's Old Brompton Road, which he shared with his partner Sigurd, and subsequently David. He remained in demand as a commercial artist, obtaining regular commissions from the Decca Record Company for their album covers. While he continued to produce satirical work reflecting the post-war political climate of fear and uncertainty, it is his hard-hitting black and white images from the 1930s for which he is best known.
He llustrated such books as Cranford (1947) and Moll Flanders (1948) and biblical subjects such as The Song of Songs (1952) and working for magazines such as Woman's Pictorial. (Long list in Peppin & Micklethwait.)
Mentioned in Whybrow's 1921-39 list of artists in and around St Ives.
Peter Wray is an innovative printmaker with a considerable international reputation as an artist-printmaker. He is one of the UK's foremost exponents of collagraph/carborundum printing. In 2009, together with his partner and fellow artist Judy COLLINS, he moved from York to Penzance, re-locating 'Handprint Studio' to Trewidden Gardens. He has 35 years' experience as a teacher.
Wray is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. He has exhibited widely throughout Britain and abroad, and his work is held in several prestigious private, public and corporate collections.
Proposed as a new member of STISA in January 1930 by George BRADSHAW, she lived at 5 South Terrace, Penzance. Her studies of sea and coast were only exhibited occasionally.
With Stanhope FORBES from about 1901-2. Listed in Platt as a New Zealand painter.
A member of the Industrial class, Newlyn, William Wright is also remembered as a skilled carpenter.
Sculptor, based near Truro, who specialised in architectural ceramics, murals and reliefs: 'because when using ceramics one can create a permanent work of art using applied colour as well as natural colour.'
Peter Wright is a Redruth-based artist who rarely shows his work. According to Cornwall Today, his paintings range 'from the exquisitely beautiful to the dark and edgy'.
An oil painting on paper by this artist, entitled Reef Playtime, is in the art collection of the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
Wright trained in art at Maidstone College of Art and at the RA Schools, London. A member of the NSA, she is also a senior lecturer in Fine Art at Falmouth University, living nearby in a former chapel in Helston. In 2003 she was winner of the Hunting Art Prize and in 2009 she won the National Open Art Competition. Wright was awarded a two year residency with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2008. In 2013 she became joint winner of the prestigious Threadneedle Prize with 'The Guilty's Gaze on the Innocent'. She is a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy summer shows.
Wright is a tutor at Newlyn School of Art (2016).
David Wright was born in Birmingham. He lives and works in Hayle. In 2017 he was featured in the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year televised art competition. His work encompasses a wide range of media. He is a regular exhibitor at STISA open shows.
Michelle Wright studied at Wimbledon School of Art. She started her career as a theatrical costumier and designer working in Edinburgh and at the National Theatre, London. She has lived in St Ives for thirty years and finds the town a constant source of inspiration. She says: 'Although I draw and paint I get the most satisfaction out of printmaking as it combines art with craft. There is something very exciting about working on a plate, putting it through a press then peeling back the paper to see what has been produced.'
She has exhibited at the Glasshouse Gallery.
Born in Croydon, she studied at the Byam Shaw School for Drawing and Painting. She began to exhibit in 1919, living in Croydon, where she was art mistress at her old school, Croydon High School for Girls. In 1935 she decided to study further at the FORBES SCHOOL of Painting in Newlyn. During that time, she visited Polperro.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, after her retirement, she continued to spend time in Cornwall, producing a number of attractive paintings of local fishing ports. Her last Royal Academy exhibit was 'A Cornish Lane in January' in 1951.
After her mother's death in 1955, Isabel moved to Worthing, where she died.
Mentioned in Whybrow's 1911-20 list of artists in and around St Ives.
London-born Wylie trained at Heatherleys and RA Schools from 1866. He was awarded the Turner Gold Medal in 1869, and had two paintings purchased by the Chantrey Bequest: Toil, Glitter, Grime and Wealth on a Flowing Tide (1883) and The Battle of the Nile (1899).
His visits to St Ives and the Arts Club were in 1925 and 1930 - the latter occasion in which he addressed HRH Princess Louise and guests in his capacity as President of the Royal Canadian Academy, in honour of its Fiftieth Anniversary.
Mentioned in Whybrow's 1883-1900 painters' list of artists in and around St Ives.
Born in London he was educated at Eton and Oxford, becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. He seems to have studied art while at Oxford under the tutelege of J B Malchair. He became the rector of St Erme, Cornwall but was often absent leaving the parish work to his curate. He embarked on numerous sketching tours around the British Isles and is one of many clergymen who were amateur artists. He remained as rector of St Erme for thirty two years before resigning in favour of his curate. By this time he had inherited the manor of Polsew in St Erme from his brother. Included in the estate was the library of his paternal grandmother's brother, Narcissus Luttrell. He sold some of the books, donated more to All Souls College, Oxford. The rest passed on his death in 1814 to E W Stackhouse of the Pendarves Estate, Camborne, a maternal cousin. E W Stackhouse's son changed his name from Stackhouse to Pendarves and added Wynne to his name in recognition of the important inheritance the family had received. The books inherited from Luttrell Wynne were sold as part of the Pendarves Library at Sotheby's in 1936. A group of Wynne's topographical drawings were sold privately when Pendarves House was demolished in 1958.
Luttrell Wynne was not a skilled draughtsman but was prolific and some of his sketches were used to make engravings where more proficient topographers' work was not available. On his death in 1814 he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Born in Dolgellau, Wales. Studied at Heatherly's and Chelsea School of Art. She moved to St Ives 1957, studying under Peter LANYON, who was a great inspiration to her.
She bought the large country house, 'Trevaylor', now a nursing home, on the Newmill road to Zennor from Penzance, and turned its myriad rooms into studios, inviting her friends to work and reside there. WS Graham, the poet and his wife Nessie lived there, as did Tony O'MALLEY for some years. Lanyon's death was a source of great grief to her, as to many who looked to him for his intuitive leadership in art and friendships.
Her friends included Roger HILTON, Tony O'MALLEY and Patrick HERON. She married sculptor Conor FALLON, another friend in the house in 1966, and they moved to Ireland with their two adopted children in 1972. She was a prolific painter and in her obituary it is commented, that she would 'be remembered for her benevolent contribution to the St Ives creative community.' (We think that goes for Newlyn and Penzance too!)
Tom CROSS opens his biographical summary of Bryan Wynter's artistic life with the following comment: 'BW was a countryman, with a fondness for wild places. In the summer of 1945 he arrived in Cornwall and camped on a hillside above St Ives.' All of the sights and impressions he garnered from that first experience became the subjects he would explore in following years through his work - the landscape, the left-over mine-workings, the standing stones, and the creatures that inhabited the rough lands and secret hideaways of the countryside.
His work passed through several phases from more representation to abstract in the search for ways of unveiling the veiled and discovering through IMOOS (Images Moving Out Onto Space) and kinetic work to reveal the relationship systems of space and image.
Michael BIRD in 2010 authors the first full-length survey of Wynter's artistic career and relates the very important place that the artist held in the history of post-war British art. Until his death in 1975, he remained working in St Ives while also participating nationally and internationally in the art scene and its progress.
His widow, Monica, a much loved and active supporter of arts organisations such as the Borlase Smart-John Wells Trust, died in summer 2011.
The son of a successful medallist, also called Allan, he was born in London and educated at Highgate School. He studied at South Kensington under Sir Hamo Thorneycroft, where he won silver medals. His first RA exhibit was a medal depicting his father. Having decided on ordination in the Anglican church, Wyon moved to Saltash in 1935, and was then appointed Vicar of Newlyn.
He was married to the painter Eileen WYON (nee Le Poer Trench).
He first became involved with the Newlyn Society of Artists in 1936, exhibiting a large sculpture, The Sorrows and Mankind, in the NAG Exhibition of 1937, and remaining a staunch supporter until he left the district in 1955. Wyon opened the STISA Summer Exhibition of 1943, and it may have been this occasion that prompted him to become involved with STISA, the first distinguished sculptor to do so (Tovey).
To demonstrate the close links between the Newlyn and St Ives Societies, the Committee of the Newlyn Society in 1943 comprised Wyon, Dod PROCTER, Eleanor HUGHES and Alethea GARSTIN, all of whom were members of STISA. Unsurprisingly his sculptures often had a religious subject, and one of his finer pieces was The Worshipper. On the death of Stanhope FORBES in 1947, Wyon was commissioned to produce a sculptured panel of Forbes' head, and this was fixed to the lower front façade of the Newlyn Art Gallery, unveiled in 1948 by Sir Alfred MUNNINGS, then both President of the RA and STISA.
Also in 1947, the final year of the life of Robert Borlase SMART, he painted a portrait of that prominent painter-artist (Whybrow). A highly-rated medalist, he was responsible for artistic work at the Royal Mint, and also exhibited some medal works with STISA.
A correspondent (2018) has sent us a link to a British Pathe news clip of 1941, showing the Rev Allan Wyon in his studio, creating the wax model for the Lloyds War Medal for Bravery at Sea, later cast in silver.
A correspondent (2023) has told us of a portrait which he purchased, painted by and signed 'E M Wyon' (Allan's wife Eileen). It is possible that the sitter may well have been Allan Wyon. Although it was listed at auction as 'a portrait of an unknown gentleman', a note on the back of the frame by a previous owner suggests that this was indeed a portrait of Allan Wyon.
The artist studied at the Dublin School of Art, at the RA Schools, and with Sir Arthur Cope. She exhibited nationally (GI, RHA) from 1905-1928, and married Allan Gairdner WYON.
It is not clear from extant records how frequently she exhibited her work, or even continued to work. However, she exhibited Spring at the NAG Exhibition of 1937, and worked closely with the committees supporting and sustaining the Newlyn Art Gallery through the war years.
She died on 26 April 1969 at Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire.
A correspondent (2023) has told us of a portrait which he purchased, signed 'E M Wyon'. It is possible that the sitter may well have been her husband, the sculptor Allan Wyon. Although it was listed at auction as 'a portrait of an unknown gentleman', a note on the back of the frame by a previous owner suggests that this was indeed a portrait of Allan Wyon.