Herbert BABBAGE
Born in Adelaide, Australia, his family then moved to New Zealand. He studied art at Wanganui Technical College, working there as a pupil teacher under the painter D E Hutton (1899-1904). In 1904 he travelled through Europe painting topographical and waterside subjects in oils and watercolour, studying both in London and at Julian's Academy in Paris, before returning to New Zealand in about 1909.
In St Ives he worked from Porthmeor Square studio. In 1913 he was to show Ebbing Tide and two others, one Cornish scene and one Dutch, at St Ives, and continued to exhibit locally throughout 1914. He was one of the four St Ives artists to lose their lives in WWI, dying aged 41 in Cardiff during service with the Home Guard. He is commemorated by Edmund George FULLER on the St Ives Arts Club Memorial, working to a design by painter friend Borlase SMART.
media
Topographical and marine painter in oils and watercolour
works and access
Works include: Ebbing Tide (1913); The Eiger (1914); Grindewald (1914); Polperro (1906); Polperro from Chapel Steps (c.1912)
Access to Work: New Zealand (Wanganui)
exhibitions
RA (2);
Wellington, Wanganui and New Plymouth (NZ, c1909);
St Ives Christmas 1913
Lanhams Painters and Etchers Exhibition Feb 1914, March 1914
Show Day March 1914, April 1914 (from own studio)
references
St Ives Times 28 Mar 1913, 30 Jan 1914, 6 Feb 1914, 6 Mar 1914, 27 Mar 1914, 10 Apr 1914
Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall (p312)
Hoyle, H (July 2011 Women Artists in Cornwall www.cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Edith Collier - New Zealand's Forgotten Artist'
Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists
Platts, 19th Century New Zealand Artists (photocopied extracts only)
Tovey (2008) St Ives Art Pioneers
Tovey (2009) St Ives Social History
Tovey (2010) Sea Change, St Ives 1914-1930
Tovey (2021) Polperro - Cornwall's Forgotten Art Centre - Volume One - Pre-1920, Wilson Books
Wormleighton (1995) Morning Tide
Whybrow (1994) St Ives (1901-10 list pp 213-4)