Harold Harvey

Cornish Family in an Interior - British 1912 Newlyn School art oil painting

Circa 1912

Harold Harvey was a Newlyn School painter who painted scenes of working-class Cornish fishermen, farmers and miners and the Cornish landscapes. He was born in Penzance and trained at the Penzance School of Art under Norman Garstin and the Académie Julian in Paris from 1894 to1896. Harold Charles Francis Harvey was born to Mary Bellringer Harvey and Francis McFarland Harvey on 20 May 1874 in Penzance. His father was a bank clerk. During his youth, he was homeschooled. In 1896, he studied at both the Académie Delécluse and the Academie Colarossi. Before 1911, Harvey lived in Penzance. After completing his schooling in Paris, Harvey returned to Penzance and began working with Norman Garstin. His works included landscapes and life settings of his native Cornwall, religious themes and interiors. He used oil and watercolor paints. From 1909–13, he was an Associate of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy and, in 1910, he was a member of the South Wales Art Society. From about 1910 and into the early 1930s, he was a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists, particularly with artists from the Lamorna valley. In 1920, Harvey and his best friend Ernest Procter established the Harvey-Proctor School in Newlyn, Cornwall. In 1911, he married fellow artist Gertrude Bodinnar. They first met when Gertrude posed for Harvey. The married couple lived in Newlyn at Maen Cottage. Late in his life, he converted to Catholicism. He died in Newlyn on 19 May 1941 and was buried in Penzance at the St. Clare Cemetery.