The Rain It Raineth Every Day is an 1889 oil-on-canvas painting by the Newlyn School artist Norman Garstin and is perhaps his best known work. The painting depicts the seafront between Newlyn and Penzance in Cornwall, in windy and rainy weather, with waves crashing onto the promenade. The painting measures 95 cm × 164 cm (37 in × 65 in) and is signed, "Norman Garstin Newlyn".
It shows several groups of people walking in the rain, some with umbrellas, a policeman with a cape, and a man standing beside a horse and cart. Among the buildings visible in the distance to the northeast are the Queens Hotel, Penzance and St Mary's Church, Penzance. Beside a rail at the edge of the promenade stands a blue painted cast iron RNLI collection box, installed in 1877 to raise funds for the Penlee lifeboat. The use of negative space shows influence from Degas, whom Garstin met when studying with Carolus-Duran in Paris: for example, compare Degas's 1876 painting Place de la Concorde , itself influenced by Japanese art and possibly by early photography.
Garstin sent the painting to the Royal Academy in 1889 but it was not selected for exhibition, possibly because the jury considered it was "too French" in style. The artist donated the work to Penzance Town Council, and it remains at the Penlee House gallery and museum in Penzance. It was not exhibited for some time after it was acquired, due to concerns that tourists would not wish to see Penzance in the rain.
The blue RNLI collection box was later removed from the sea front. It was bought online in 2018, and restored in 2020 by the BBC television programme The Repair Shop , to be exhibited at Penlee Lifeboat Station.
The title of the work refers to a line from either William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , where the fool, Feste, closes the play with a song (Act 5, scene 1, line 415) having as its refrain "the rain It raineth every day", or from King Lear , where an unnamed fool declares in Act 3, scene 2: "He that has and a little tiny wit / With heigh-ho, the wind and the rain / Must make content with his fortunes fit, / For the rain it raineth every day.". [1]
Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS was an English artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the soubriquet "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from Lionel Birch, an artist who was also working in the area at that time.
Penzance is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about 64 miles (103 km) west-southwest of Plymouth and 255 miles (410 km) west-southwest of London. Situated in the shelter of Mount's Bay, the town faces south-east onto the English Channel, is bordered to the west by the fishing port of Newlyn, to the north by the civil parish of Madron and to the east by the civil parish of Ludgvan. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole, Paul, Gulval, and Heamoor. Granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated on 9 May 1614, it has a population of 21,200.
Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the largest fishing port in England.
Norman Garstin was an Irish artist, teacher, art critic and journalist associated with the Newlyn School of painters. After completing his studies in Antwerp and Paris, Garstin travelled around Europe and painted some of his first professional paintings while on the journey. He later took students to Europe to some of his favourite places.
Thomas Cooper Gotch or T. C. Gotch (1854–1931) was an English painter and book illustrator loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement; he was the brother of John Alfred Gotch, the architect.
Stanhope Alexander Forbes was a British artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was often called 'the father of the Newlyn School'.
Newlyn Copper was a class of arts and crafts copperware originating in Newlyn in Cornwall.
Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn School of Art the works of which are now largely located at Penlee House Gallery and Museum in nearby Penzance.
Mildred Anne Butler was an Irish artist, who worked in watercolour and oil of landscape, genre and animal subjects. Butler was born and spent most of her life in Kilmurry, Thomastown, County Kilkenny and was associated with the Newlyn School of painters.
Dod Procter, born Doris Margaret Shaw, (1890–1972) was an English artist, and the wife of the artist Ernest Procter. Her painting Morning was bought for the public by the Daily Mail in 1927.
Frank Bramley RA was an English post-impressionist genre painter of the Newlyn School.
The Church of St Hilary is an Early English–style church in the village of St Hilary, Cornwall, England. It features a 13th-century tower. Following a fire in 1853, the remainder of the church was rebuilt two years later by William White. The church is dedicated to Saint Hilary of Poitiers and is a Grade I listed building. The architecture is described in Pevsner's Buildings of England: Cornwall.
Penlee House is a museum and art gallery located in the town of Penzance in Cornwall, and is home to a great many paintings by members of the Newlyn School, including many by Stanhope Forbes, Norman Garstin, Walter Langley and Lamorna Birch. Penlee House is currently operated by Penzance Town Council in association with Cornwall Council. Well-known works from the renowned Newlyn School include The Rain It Raineth Every Day by Norman Garstin, School is Out by Elizabeth Forbes, Among the Missing by Walter Langley and On Paul Hill by Stanhope Forbes.
Elizabeth Adela Forbes was a Canadian painter who was primarily active in the UK. She often featured children in her paintings and School Is Out is one of her most popular works. She was friends with the artists James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Walter Sickert, both of whom influenced her work. Her etchings in particular are said to show the influence of Whistler.
Penlee Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) search and rescue operations for Mount's Bay in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The lifeboat station operated at various locations in Penzance from the early 19th century. It moved to Penlee Point near Mousehole in 1913, thus gaining its current name, but was moved to Newlyn in 1983 without any change of name. The station is remembered for the loss of the entire lifeboat crew on 19 December 1981.
David Haughton (1924–1991) was a British artist associated with the St Ives movement. Many of his paintings, etchings and drawings feature aspects of the Cornish landscape, particularly the area around St Just.
Harold Harvey (1874–1941) was a Newlyn School painter who painted scenes of working-class Cornish fishermen, farmers and miners and Cornish landscapes. He was born in Penzance and trained at the Penzance School of Arts under Norman Garstin and the Académie Julian in Paris (1894–1896).
Annie Walke or Anne Fearon Walke was an English artist. Anne Fearon grew up and was schooled in Banstead, Surrey. After completing her studies at the Chelsea School of Art and the London School of Art, she and her sister, Hilda Fearon, furthered their studies in Dresden, Germany. About the turn of the 20th century Miss Fearon settled in Cornwall, where she continued her studies and established a studio in the Cornish coastal village of Polruan. After she married Nicolo Bernard Walke in 1911, she soon moved with him to St Hilary, Cornwall. where her husband became the vicar in 1913. She was a member of the Newlyn School and other artists' organizations and created portraits and religious works for churches. Her work has been exhibited in England, Paris, America and South Africa. In the latter part of her life Walke was a published poet.
Jack Pender (1918–1998) was a British artist.
Alethea Garstin (1894–1978) was a Cornish artist and illustrator who exhibited paintings regularly at London's Royal Academy from an early age.