Samuel John Lamorna Birch 1869-1955

In 1889 the son of a painter and decorator Samuel John Birch, traveled from Manchester to Cornwall with only £25 in his pocket and one tin trunk of belongings, becoming one of the first of the ‘second generation’ of artists to visit Newlyn. He craved a more rustic life away from the city, where he had worked as a linoleum designer, a job he hated. Cornwall offered endless beautiful views to paint and streams, rivers and ocean inlets filled with the fish that he loved to try to catch. Rather than moving to Newlyn to join Forbes, Birch established a new artistic colony in the Lamorna valley and other artists soon joined him. Shortly after his arrival in Cornwall, Stanhope Forbes suggested that he add the name ‘Lamorna’ to distinguish him from another Newlyn resident named Lionel Birch. In 1902 he received a letter asking whether he gave drawing lessons, from a woman who was to become his future wife Emily Houghton Vivian (called ‘Mouse’) whose fiancee had recently died. Emily and Samuel married and bought a house named Flagstaff Cottage overlooking the sea at Lamorna. His views of the cove at Lamorna are among his most beautiful paintings and examples like Morning at Lamorna Cove (Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead), Morning Fills the Bowl and the present view The Cove show his heart-felt love for this pretty harbour village. ‘Birch was almost entirely self-taught as a painter and a deep love of nature pervades all his work. He was especially interested in painting light effects on water, whether rivers, streams or the sea, as well as capturing the ever changing colours of the sky.’ (Caroline Fox, Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School, 1993, pg. 81)