St. Michael’s Mount from Marazion Marshes

Robert Borlase Smart, ROI RBA RBC RWA SMA FRSA (1881 – 1947)

Oil on canvas. Signed.

17½” x 23½” (44.5 cm x 59.7 cm)

Provenance: Inscribed on label verso, handwritten by the artist:
“With every good wish from Capt. and Mrs. R. Borlase Smart, The Cabin. St. Ives. C.”
Exhibited: The Royal West of England Academy. Original exhibition label verso.

This celebrated coastal painter, etcher and poster designer was born in Kingsbridge, Devon, and studied at Plymouth School of Art before moving to St. Ives just after the First World War. Here, he trained with the renowned seascape painter Julius Olsson and became a key figure in the St. Ives colony of artists. Smart promoted the work of the St. Ives School throughout Britain and overseas and was largely responsible for holding together The St. Ives Society of Artists at a time when differences between the traditional and modern painters threatened to fracture it. Broad in his outlook and popular among his fellow artists, he encouraged young painters and welcomed the impetus of fresh ideas. His view was that the Society should progress by embracing the modern approaches to painting. Penwith Society of Arts, the radical group of St. Ives artists, was founded in his memory in 1949 by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Bernard Leach, Sven Berlin and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, among others. In his own right, Smart was an important and highly successful artist. He exhibited at the principal galleries, including The Royal Academy and in Paris, and was elected to The Royal Institute of Oil Painters and The Royal Society of British Artists. This fine example captures the quality of light in West Cornwall which so famously drew artists to this corner of Britain.