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Visit Penlee House & Museum

Penlee House is a Gallery, Museum, Cafe and Shop. Situated within Penlee Park, a space to reflect and great for family visits.

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A space for exhibitions & events

Alongside our Exhibition programme we run a variety of community events and workshops. The Newlyn School and Social history galleries change often. Find out what’s on.

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A space to learn

Penlee House is committed to lifelong learning. We run workshops for all age groups and offer a school workshop programme.

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A space for all

Built in 1865, as the home of the Branwell family. Penlee House is home to many paintings by members of the Newlyn School. It is also home to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society collection.

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You can search and browse our collections online. We also have a section dedicated to the Newlyn School.

Hall, Fred

As well as producing some outstanding rural realist paintings during his time in Newlyn, Fred Hall left a unique legacy in the form of highly entertaining cartoons of his fellow artists, now in Tate archive.

Biography

Fred Hall – 1860 – 1948

Born in Stillington in Yorkshire in 1860, Fred Hall first arrived in Newlyn in 1884 and made the village his home from 1885 to 1897. He was very much part of the social circle of the artists at this time, as is evidenced by the caricatures he drew of them all, now in Tate archive.

He painted several notable works while living in Newlyn, including ‘Home from the Fields’ (1886), which features the figure in ‘In the Fields’ (Penlee House collection) as part of a wider composition. His charming, beautifully observed, plein-air paintings of this period were not a commercial success, and he turned to more humorous anecdotal subjects.

Like most of the Newlyn School artists, Hall was influenced by the Continental art of the period, in particular the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848 – 1884). Hall’s Newlyn work was particularly influenced by both the social realist themes of Lepage’s painting, and by its square brush technique.

After twelve years, Hall moved away from Newlyn to settle in Porlock. He went on to develop caricature as the main element of his art, achieving fame for his 1890 exhibition of silhouettes of members of the Devon and Somerset staghounds.

Portfolio

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Visit Us

Penlee House is a beautiful art gallery and museum, set within sub-tropical gardens, with a great café.

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Exhibitions

Our vibrant exhibition programme celebrates the nationally important art and history of West Cornwall.

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Learning

From school visits to family activities, talks and walks, there are plenty of learning opportunities at Penlee House.

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Our Café

Enjoy a delicious lunch or coffee at the Orangery Café, with its sunny terrace overlooking the park.

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