Seascape Exhibition at Touchstones Museum



'Waiting' by Newcastle artist Charles Napier Hemy - a painter best known for his marine paintings, with two of his works in the Tate collections.

BORN to a musical family at Newcastle-on-Tyne Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) and his two brothers, Thomas and Bernard, were painters. Charles Hemy trained in the Government School of Design, Newcastle, followed by the Antwerp Academy and the studio of Baron Leys. He returned to London in the 1870s and in 1881 moved to Falmouth in Cornwall. He produced painted figure and landscapes, but is best known works are Pilchards (1897) and London River (1904) which are in the Tate collections. Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1898 and an Academician in 1910, he was also honoured as an Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1890 and became a member in 1897. He died in Falmouth on September 30, 1917.

His oil painting 'The Armed Merchant Men' (1912) is part of an exhibition currently showing at the Touchstones' Museum, Rochdale.  This exhibition running for a year from March 2013 is part of a show based on bringing together works from the Touchstones' permanent collection spanning many centuries that have been inspired by tidal waters.  A more extensive review of this exhibition may be found in our forthcoming printed publication Northern Voices No.14 - Summer/ Autumn 2013.