Fishing lives, women and art.

Léon Spilliaert, 'Fishermans Wife', 1910. Indian ink wash, brush, wax crayon, pastel and coloured pencil on paper, 64.3 x 48.9 cm.

The fisherman's wife stands, waiting, back turned to the world. Léon Spilliaert was fascinated by the image of the lonely woman, returning to it again and again in his work.⠀ ⠀

The same tragic, ‘waiting woman’ is also a recurring image in Verhaeren’s poems. He wrote passionately of the doomed fishing communities who had once eked out a living among the dunes of the unforgiving Belgian coast. Here, in an extract from the poem ‘Le Péril’ (1907), the women wait anxiously for the return of the fishing boat after a storm:⠀ ⠀⠀

"… Yet nevertheless the tiny lights⠀still keep watch from the cottages;⠀ scattered amongst the dark enclosures like breadcrumbs of hope.⠀ ⠀⠀

 And the women, beneath their mourning capes⠀ fists at their mouths,⠀ are still there, silent and iron-willed,⠀gazing into the darkness."⠀ 

Many Newlyn School Artists also featured women waiting for the return of loved ones as subjects...

Sometimes, as in Walter Langley's epic 'Waiting for the boats' there were many expectant faces...

or his 'Reverie' featuring just one young face looking out of the window over the Mounts Bay...

or Langley's "Never morning wore to evening"

or when the news is the worst, 'Never morning wore to evening but some heart did break'"...

not forgetting, "The Breadwinners". Penlee Gallery has a permanent collection of Langley's and other Newlyn School artists and is well worth a visit as there are also several always changing curations on display throughout they year.