White Court Art

Description

A lovely late Victorian oil on canvas by this much exhibited artist. Signed in pencil verso on stretcher. Here we see a country scene beloved of English landscape & genre artists and a particularly favourite topic for Banks Fortescue who painted outdoors in order to truly capture the scene. The hunter (poacher) with his dog & broken shotgun stopping to pass the time of day with a neighbour, possibly gifting one of his bag to her. The beautiful stonewall protecting the cottage & perhaps a glimpse of sea in the background suggest the picture was painted in Cornwall. This is a really pretty painting and shows the artists skills and why he was so popular in galleries and at the academies and societies throughout the United Kingdom and why his work is much collected today.
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William Banks Fortescue was a painter of genre, landscape and still life subjects, mainly in oils. He lived and worked in Newlyn and St Ives in Cornwall for most of his life, although for a short time, between 1883 and 1884, he also worked in Venice. His genre and landscape scenes, which often related to ships and boats, reflect the realism and plein-air concerns of the Cornish painters. He was dedicated to depicting the life of ordinary country people as truthfully as possible, and painted out of doors in order to accurately capture the effects of light and atmosphere. Fortescue exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists from 1875 to 1900, becoming ARBSA in 1884 and RBSA in 1899. He also showed in London galleries from 1880, including at the Royal Academy from 1887, with titles such as The Larboat Light and Harvest Festival in a Cornish Fishing Village. William Banks Fortescue was also a regular exhibitor at galleries in the provinces, particularly in Southport, and in Scotland. His work is represented in a number of public collections, including the Atkinson Museum and Art Gallery, Southport