Penlee House Gallery & Museum

Penlee House Gallery & Museum The artistic heart of West Cornwall's history, a space to relax, explore, and discover. Open Monday - Saturday

Owned and Operated by Penzance Council
(281)

Penlee House Gallery & Museum is set in beautiful semi-tropical gardens in the heart of Penzance. Penlee House specialises in the art, archaeology and social history of West Cornwall. The collection of Newlyn School paintings (1880-1940) is one of the world's finest, including works by Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes, Walter Langley, Harold Harvey and Laura Knight. Changing exhibitions throughout th

e year highlight the skill and craftmanship of art in West Cornwall. Check our website to find out about our current exhibition. Admissions charges apply, please see website for details. Free family trails and regular free family activities are available. The Orangery Cafe serves delicious homemade cakes, light lunches and coffees. For more information see www.penleehouse.org.uk

Work of the Week! Summer's Day, Coast of Cornwall by Paul Hampden Dougherty (1877–1947)One of the leading American marin...
03/06/2026

Work of the Week!
Summer's Day, Coast of Cornwall by Paul Hampden Dougherty (1877–1947)

One of the leading American marine painters of his generation, Paul Dougherty, visited Cornwall every summer between 1908 and 1914 and made his name in America with his Cornish marine paintings.

Dougherty was known as one of the leading marine painters of his time, and he had success as an artist throughout his life. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1877. His father, a lawyer and leader of the New York bar, expected his son to follow in his footsteps. Paul sketched and painted throughout his childhood, and by the age of eighteen had one of his paintings accepted into the annual exhibition of the National Academy. He worked on location, travelling widely, capturing the sea in all of its moods. He spent six months a year at St. Ives in the early years of the 20th century.

Did you catch us on BBC Spotlight last night? 📺A central aim of Art Fund Going Places is to work collaboratively with co...
02/06/2026

Did you catch us on BBC Spotlight last night? 📺

A central aim of Art Fund Going Places is to work collaboratively with communities on every exhibition, particularly with groups whose voices are often underrepresented.

As part of the development of Making Her Mark, Penlee House Gallery & Museum partnered with Cornish charity Carefree Cornwall to work with care-experienced young people.

The project began in summer 2025 with a series of taster sessions and visits to local cultural spaces alongside artist Elizabeth Howell. The young people also travelled to Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum and Fife to meet peers involved in the wider Going Places programme, share ideas and experiences, and see how museums across the UK are working with young people to shape exhibitions.

From September 2025, participants worked with artist Kate Turner, forming KLUB KEVRENNEK (Cornish for kind, social and sharing). Together, they explored intersectional voices and perspectives, imagining what a fairer world for women and marginalised genders could look like.

Inspired by artworks from partner venues, the group experimented with a range of artistic techniques to create their own work. The project culminated in a collaborative protest banner expressing their ideas, featuring a custom typeface designed by the young people, alongside creative writing and imagery developed throughout the project.

A huge thank you to the many young people from Carefree Cornwall who contributed their creativity, ideas and voices, and to Carefree staff Karen Stephens and Nikki Speer for their support.

Making Her Mark is a major exhibition that is part of Going Places, an Art Fund programme made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust.

📸Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art' at Penlee House Gallery & Museum, part of Art Fund's Going Places programme © Tom Last/Art Fund 2026
Penzance Council Love Penzance Friends of Penlee House Art Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum Kirkcaldy Galleries Geddon PZ BBC Cornwall

🥛 Happy World Milk Day!Pictured here is “The National Milkmaid” Zoe Newton demonstrating her craft as she milks Bertha t...
01/06/2026

🥛 Happy World Milk Day!

Pictured here is “The National Milkmaid” Zoe Newton demonstrating her craft as she milks Bertha the cow at the Cornish Young Farmers’ event in Connor Downs on 12 August 1955.

Newton was far more than a champion milkmaid. One of London’s most sought-after photographic models, she became familiar to millions through national milk advertising campaigns with her smiling face. As newspapers of the day noted, wherever you went in town, you were likely to see Zoe encouraging people to enjoy a glass of milk.

This wonderful photograph captures a moment when agriculture, community, and a national advertising icon came together in Cornwall nearly 70 years ago.

01/06/2026

After decades in the doldrums, the unfashionable town – still rough around the edges – has finally become chic

On this day in 1894, Alethea Garstin was born. Alethea was born in Penzance, the daughter of acclaimed painter Norman Ga...
01/06/2026

On this day in 1894, Alethea Garstin was born.
Alethea was born in Penzance, the daughter of acclaimed painter Norman Garstin. She began painting when she was 16, and aged 18, she had her first painting accepted by the Royal Academy.⁠
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She received no formal tuition as a painter but was probably taught largely by her father, who also taught artists such as Harold Harvey.⁠
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She became influenced by the Fauvist painters and her mature work, which was usually on a small scale, used a limited palette and broken, loose brushwork. She nearly always painted en Plein air, directly onto board, with a toned background, using square hog-hair brushes.⁠
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Her confident handling of paint and lively compositions prompted Patrick Heron to describe her in 1978 as 'England's leading Impressionist' and her work as 'as good as Vuillard'.⁠
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Her subjects included many of the scenes and characters she witnessed on her travels through Ireland, Belgium, Italy, France and to the Isles of Scilly, as well as friends and views closer to her Penwith home.⁠
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Alethea was a delightful character, forming close friendships with artists such as Alfred Wallis and Dod Procter, and is still remembered locally with much affection.

On this day in 1846, George Sherwood Hunter was born. Like many of his fellow Newlyn School artists, Hunter had spent ti...
31/05/2026

On this day in 1846, George Sherwood Hunter was born.
Like many of his fellow Newlyn School artists, Hunter had spent time in the artists’ colony at Pont Aven, Brittany, before finding similar unspoiled rural subjects and an equal artistic camaraderie in Newlyn.

George Sherwood Hunter was born in Aberdeen on 30 May 1846. He first visited Newlyn in the 1890s, staying at Belle View in 1897. In 1902, he settled at the Malt House, Newlyn, with his wife Constance.

Hunter had a studio in Batema’s Meadow, where the Forbes School of Painting was situated, and Hunter assisted with tuition at the School in its early days. In Mrs Lionel Birch’s 1906 biography of the Forbes’, she wrote, ‘Mr and Mrs Forbes feel that they owe a debt of gratitude to Mr G S Hunter, an artist of sincere and thoughtful individuality who is always ready to help and supplement the teacher’s efforts. His own studio is a perfect treasure-house of beautiful and interesting work.‘

Like other Newlyn School artists, Hunter travelled widely, including to the Middle East, where he painted a large oil depicting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, currently held by Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.

Hunter died on 18 June 1919, and Constance died just five months later. The couple had no children, so Hunter’s share in the meadow studios was left to his two sisters in Aberdeen. The Malt House was left to Hunter’s nephew, also called Sherwood.

During his lifetime, Hunter exhibited a great many paintings, including sixteen works in the Royal Academy and over sixty at the Royal Society of British Artists.

🖼️At Prayer, 1905 by George Sherwood Hunter (1846–1919)
“Presented in memory of my parents.” - The George Bednar Donation

Throwback Thursday 📸⁠⁠The wedding of John Peak and Shirley Pomeroy — later Shirley Peak — is captured in this wonderful ...
28/05/2026

Throwback Thursday 📸⁠
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The wedding of John Peak and Shirley Pomeroy — later Shirley Peak — is captured in this wonderful group portrait from their big day on the 19th March 1957.
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And how amazing are those bridesmaids’ dresses? The bold floral patterns, elbow-length gloves and those wonderfully dramatic matching hats are peak vintage wedding fashion — definitely not a style you’d miss walking down the street! ⁠
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Pictured from left to right are Jennifer Curnow, Fred Peak, John Peak, Shirley Peak (née Pomeroy), William Pomeroy and Heather Wigley (née Harvey). In front are page boys Robert Curnow and Richard Curnow of Rejarden Farm.⁠
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Work of the Week!The Merry Springtime, 1905 by Arthur Meade (1863-1942) Meade was one of the stalwarts of the St Ives co...
27/05/2026

Work of the Week!
The Merry Springtime, 1905 by Arthur Meade (1863-1942)

Meade was one of the stalwarts of the St Ives colony and one of its leading landscape artists, eventually exhibiting at the RA over 60 times.

This later work earned the artist the nickname 'Bluebell Meade', and it was his biggest success, winning an award at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.

27/05/2026

Chris explores this charming work and reflects on Schjerfbeck’s creative vision. Later in life, Schjerbeck said, “When you give a child a pencil, you give her an entire world.”

A beautiful reminder of imagination, simplicity, and the quiet poetry found in everyday scenes.

Address

Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Morrab Road
Penzance
TR184HE

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441736363625

Website

https://bsky.app/profile/penleehousegallery.bsky.social, https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/A

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