Newlyn School - Ralph Todd - Original Watercolour c. 1890

Ralph Todd was born in 1856.He trained in London and continued his studies in Belguim, France and Holland. He also spent time studying in Paris and in Brittany, painting almost always in watercolours. It was in Brittany that he met and became good friends with Dublin born Stanhope Alexander Forbes.

Todd moved to Cornwall in 1883 and the following year Stanhope Forbes joined him. The Newlyn School also included Frank Bramley, William Blandford Fletcher, William Wainwright, William Breaksphere, Frank Bodily, Fred Millard and Edwin Harris. Todd struggled throughout his life to make a living from his art, was frequently unable to buy materials and plagued with debt. His work has since been recognised and fetches high prices at auction. His son, Ralph Middleton Todd who was born in 1891 in Helston was a renowed artist in his own right, studying under Stanhope Forbes and later becoming a renowned first world war artist and was elected RA in 1945.

This painting is an original watercolour by Ralph Todd and dates from around 1890, painted whilst still living in Cornwall, and of a young woman in a wide pink bonnet and carrying a basket.

It is a charming well executed composition and coveys simply and beautifully the daily life, colours and atmosphere of the working people of Cornwall in the late Victorian period.

A charming bonus is that when removed from the frame, the back of the painting shows where the artist was testing his colours, drafting and outlining elements seen in the final composition.

Certified original and with provenance from the artists niece, Mrs Lorna Innes, with a signed certificate verso.