CHARLES NAPIER HEMY PORTRAIT
The Lander Gallery unveils a remarkable portrait by Mary Winifred Freeman (1866- 1961), depicting her brother--in-law Charles Napier Hemy, painted in his floating studio in 1892. Her sharply observed grisaille painting displays her accomplished artistic talent and is a fascinating documentary record of the man and his studio aboard the Vandermeer.
Winifred Freeman was then 26, a Cornish girl who had been studying at Herkomer’s school in Bushey, along with so many artists who found their way to Cornwall. Cheerfully eccentric, she wore knickerbockers and smoked cigars, lived for some time at Newlyn and exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy and elsewhere over many years. Her sister Amy married Hemy who had settled in Famouth and was already established as one of the foremost marine painters of his time