Elizabeth Adela Stanhope Forbes 1859-1912

The present picture is an oil sketch for Elizabeth Forbes' last great painting Blackberry Gatherers (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1912 and described by the critic for the Studio as, 'a good example of the work of an artist who had charm of manner and true individuality of style' (Studio, 1912, vol. 56, p. 131). As Caroline Fox has observed,' The painting shows no evidence of diminished powers but is, on the contrary, a lively and exuberant work, using the much brighter palette of the second generation of Newlyn artists' (Caroline Fox, Stanhope Fobes and the Newlyn School, 1997, p. 50).