Georgina BAINSMITH
The artist was trained first in Taunton, Somerset, where she was awarded a medal (1885) for sculpture, and subsequently attended art school in London. She married Henry BAINSMITH, also a sculptor, who worked from Park Studio in St John's Wood (exhibited 1890-92 RA, RBA). The couple had one son, Bruce. Owing to the sudden death of Henry in 1893, Georgina moved to St Ives, Cornwall with her mother and younger sister Mabel BUCKNALL.
Mabel later married the photographer John Christian William DOUGLAS (Will) in 1897, which may have positively influenced Georgina to take up photography herself. Tovey reveals, in his in-depth research into the social history of the artists and their involvement in St Ives, that for some years she ran a photographic studio on the High Street in St Ives, and created photographic exhibits which she mounted at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society exhibition (1902) and later at the Royal Photographic Society in London. Georgina was a regular Show Day exhibitor in St Ives from 1895-1908.
media
Sculptor in marble and bronze; photographer
works and access
Works include: marble bust of General Peel Yates; embossed bronze of Capt T Row Harry, Mayor of St Ives; bust of Coxswain Henry Blogg, a double VC; marble bust of Canon Alfred Ainger (1837-1904)
Access to Work: University College, London (bronze bust done from life of Francis William Newman, Emeritus Professor of London University)
exhibitions
RCPS 1902 (Photographic exhibits)
St Ives Show Days 1895-1908
STISA Winter 1930 (Bronze panel of King Edward VII, later presented to Queen Alexandra)
memberships
North British Academy of Arts, Newcastle (Fellow)
STISA c1930-37
references
Bainsmith (1909) 'Francis Newman in Private Life' in G Sieveking Memoir and Letters of Francis W Newman;
Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall (p312)
Annual Report of RCPS 1902
Tovey (2003) Creating a Splash (p195)
(2008) St Ives Art Pioneers
(2009) St Ives: Social History (p73 likenesses, biographical detail)
Whybrow (1994) St Ives