Frank Gascoigne HEATH
Born in Coulsdon, Surrey, Heath studied at South Kensington, Croydon and Westminster. He was also a student in Antwerp and at the Herkomer School at Bushey, in Hertfordshire, where he became an admirer of the work of Stanhope FORBES. It was that which brought him to Newlyn around 1901. Though he was not an enrolled student of the Forbes School, he evidently joined in many of the social events associated with the School. He lived and worked variously at Paul, Newlyn, and Lamorna. On his marriage to fellow student Jessica DOHERTY in 1910, the couple lived in Polperro, where their two daughters were born.
In 1912 they built their family home at Menwinnion, near Paul in Cornwall. Heath served with Royal Fusiliers in WWI, and suffered poor health and depression for the rest of his life as a result of being gassed in France in 1915. His closest ties were to Newlyn Society of Artists, and he exhibited with STISA irregularly.
media
Painter of landscapes, figures and coastal subjects; etching
works and access
Works include: Porthminster Beach, St Ives; illustration of Heath oil of Harbour with sea gulls (IG, 1909); In the Cowshed; Evening on the Cliffs and The Braken Cutter (c1920); Madonna Lilies (1921); Boy and Ferret (1921); Digging Potatoes on the Cliff (1921); The Keigwin Arms (1925, drypoint etching); Girl Plucking Goose (1928); A summer afternoon (repr Hardie 2009)
Access to: Gulls, Newlyn Harbour (1909) at RCM, Truro
exhibitions
RA (25) 1914;
Paris Salon
NAG May 1902 (first gallery sale), March 1909, September 1920 Revival Exhibition, Spring 1921, Spring 1925, December 1925, Spring 1926, July and December 1926, Summer 1928, Summer 1929, March 1931
WCAA Founding Art Auction (2004), Queen's Hotel (Donation from grand-daughter)
memberships
NSA
references
Personal bibliography
Bedford (1995) Frank Gascoigne Heath and his ‘Newlyn School’ friends at Lamorna (illus in colour & b/w)
Bedford (2009) 'The Heaths', a biographical essay about Jessica and Frank Heath (p103 in Hardie 2009)
General
Cornish Telegraph (25 Mar 1909)
Benezit
Crespon-Halotier (p 260)
Fox (1985) Painting in Newlyn
Graves RA Dictionary 1769-1904
Green (2002) Posing the Model
Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn: Diary of a Gallery
Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall
Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists
NAG sales records (repr Hardie 2009)
Newton et al (2005) Painting at the Edge
RCPS Exhibitors list (J F Tonkin)
Public Catalogue Foundation (2007) Cornwall & Isles of Scilly: Oil Paintings in Public Collections
Tovey (2003) Creating a Splash
Tovey (2021) Polperro - Cornwall's Forgotten Art Centre - Volume One - Pre-1920, Wilson Books
Tovey (2022) Lamorna - An Artistic, Social and Literary History - Volumes I & II, Wilson Books
Wallace (2002) Under the Open Sky
Wormleighton (1995) A Painter Laureate