president's address. 321 



Since Turner showed tlie way the trouble is to say not what 

 artist has painted views of Cornwall, hut what artist has not. 

 Maclise, who did hut little in landscape painting, made use of 

 St. Nectan's Kieve (not very far fi'om Tintayel) as part of his 

 picture of " Tlie Waterfall," and not far away was the little mill 

 which was long known as '•Creswiek's INIill." John Varley drew 

 a good many views of tln^ county. .T. 0. Hook, E.A., has for 

 half-a-century painted glorious views of the sea, including dozens 

 of pictures representing Cornish coast scenery. John Brett 

 entered the Academy (it was sujiposed) on his views of the 

 Cornish Lions and Kynance Cove. Lord Leighton did not 

 disdain to draw some sketches of Cornwall. There is rarely an 

 Academy exhibition without at least twenty views of Cornish 

 scenery, and in the present exhibition many people consider Mr. 

 B. W. Leader's " Cornish view " as his best picture of the year. 

 But Mr. Napier Hemy, who lives at Palmouth and does much of 

 his work from his floating studio "The Vandermeer," easily at 

 the preseut time takes the foremost place as painter of the seas, 

 and especially of Cornish seas, so I think it will not be without 

 interest if I say a few words about him and his work. I like to 

 get things first hand, so I wrote to Mr. Hemy, and he referred 

 me to an account of himself written by Mr. Arthur Fish and 

 published in the "Magazine of Art," November, 1899. I have 

 no intention of writing a biography of Mr. Hemy, but merely to 

 mention that he settled at Churchheld, Falmouth, in 1883, after 

 having achieved his first great success in 1880 with a picture 

 called "Saved," representing stormy weather at the entrance of 

 the small harbour of Littlehampton. From the time of his 

 settling in Cornwall his progress has been rapid and his success 

 most marked. At first he sketched from an open boat, then he 

 put a sort of cabin studio in an old seine boat which he called 

 the " Vandervelde," but that was nearly wrecked in 1888 and 

 now stands high and dry in the garden of Churchtield, and 

 has been succeeded by the fine studio yacht which he built 

 and called the "Vandermeer." Iii 1897 he exhibited two 

 magnificent works, one entitled "Lost," a swamped seine boat 

 in a turmoil of waters, the other the Avell known " Pilchards," 

 that was purchased by the Council with the Chantry bequest 

 funds for £1,200 and no\v hangs in the Tate Gallery. Mr Hemy, 



