05 Works, Marine Art, Walter Langley's perils of fishing life in a Cornish Village, with Footnotes, #87

Walter Langley, R.I. (1852-1922)

Waiting for the Boats, c. 1885

Pencil and watercolour

16 x 47 in. (42 x 119.5 cm.)

Private collection

Sold for GBP 109,300 in June 1999

The quayside by the seawall in the last few moments of leisure when they are able to share news, knit and read letters from relatives as they await the arrival of the herring fleet that has been away at sea and is returning with the day's catch. All is still and peaceful before these women's strenuous daily work begins and the women have to unload and clean the fish. The youngest of the women appears to be concerned about the arrival of the boats, perhaps nervous that not all of them will return; many men were killed in ocean storms. The anxious expression on her young face is in contrast to the weather-beaten skin of the older women who are used to sitting and waiting for the boats. More on this painting

Walter Langley (1852–1922)

In a Cornish Fishing Village – Departure of the Fleet for the North, c. 1886

Watercolour over graphite, with scratching out, on paper

121.9x926 mm

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

This painting is the first in a series of three works, depicting the perils of fishing life. In this work, the fleet is watched by villagers as it heads off to the fishing grounds. 

Walter Langley (1852–1922)

Disaster! Scene in a Cornish fishing village, c 1889

Watercolour over graphite, with scratching out, on paper

121.9x76.5 cms

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Walter Langley devoted his life as a painter to scenes in the lives of fishing people in Cornwall. This work, from 1889, is slightly more dramatic than some in its depiction of off-stage events at sea impacting on people at home. Like many of his paintings this watercolour is now in the possession of the City Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, Langley's home town, More on this painting

Walter Langley (1852–1922)

Among the Missing – Scene in a Cornish Fishing Village, c. 1884

Watercolour over graphite, with scratching out, on paper

H 118 x W 85 cm

Penlee House Gallery & Museum

This watercolour is the third in a series of three works showing the perils of fishing life. On the wall of the post office is a list of all the men who have been lost at sea. This scene is still one that is all too frequent amidst fishing communities today. More on this painting

Walter Langley (1852–1922)

Sketch for 'Among the Missing – Scene in a Cornish Fishing Village'

Watercolour over graphite, with scratching out, on paper

H 20.2 x W 11 cm

Penlee House Gallery & Museum

Walter Langley, RI (1852–1922), often described as a pioneer of the Newlyn artists in Cornwall, was born in Birmingham in 1852. His father was a tailor, and the typically large Victorian family lived in poor circumstances. The boy attended a mission school there, taking evening classes at Birmingham School of Design from the age of ten, and becoming an apprentice to a commercial lithographer in Birmingham while still attending classes. His life might have gone on like that, only a few steps further up the social ladder than his father's. But, on his own initiative, Langley picked up watercolour painting, and showed three of his watercolours at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1873. A scholarship to the National Art Training Schools of South Kensington followed, to study decorative design, and, after another spell as a lithographer, Langley set out on his independent career as an artist.

Although he was very active in Birmingham, where he and others founded the Birmingham Art Circle, Langley was attracted by the trend established in France, to paint villagers among scenes of daily life in rural or coastal communities. In 1880, he and Henry Martin Pope (1843-1908), a fellow-founder member of the Art Circle, visited Newlyn in Cornwall, which was then beginning to have something of a reputation as an artist's colony. When Langley decided to move there with his young family in 1882, he became the first artist of any note to do so. He retained his ties with Birmingham, but eventually settled there permanently. His connection was confirmed when, after the death of his first wife, he married a Cornish woman in 1897. He died in Penzance in 1922, a well-known artist  — Jacqueline Banerjee

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