Penzance School of Art

Founded in 1853 the School was on of the first provincial art schools outside the capital and the first west of Bristol. The land was a gifted by the town mayor, MP and banker, Charles Campbell Ross,(1849-1920). Its first Head was Frenchman Henry Malcolm Geoffroi (1825-1917). Geoffroi who was born in Boulogne arrived in England as a young man in 1840 it is believed to escape the political turmoil in his native country that happened when Napoleon III attempted a coup. Geoffroi studied at the South Kensington Schools. On completing his studies primarily as an art teacher he moved to Penzance with the sole purpose of established and art school and to bring the arts to the local populous. Interest in the school was strong across all social classes. Everyone from artisans to young ladies wanted to learn how to draw. By the end of the year Geoffroi was organising a drawing class at nearby Hayle and then a few years later he established another in St. Just. So popular were classes in Penzance that by 1881 he had overseen the establishment of a larger school paid for largely by donation. The building was designed in the English Gothic style by well-known Cornish architect, Silvanus Trevail,(1851-1903) and was completed for budgeted sum of £1220 (the 2016 equivalent of a little over £136K) trivial by modern standards.

The School of Art became a centre for artistic enterprise and boasts many luminaries who studied and taught there going on to greater things. Artists who studied at the school included Harold Harvey, Michael Canney, Peter Lanyon, Alexander Mackenzie, Marlow Moss and its eminent teachers included Norman Garstin, Terry Frost, Bouverie-Hoyton (Principal), John Tunnard and much earlier Stanhope Forbes. In 2003 to celebrate its 150th anniversary, Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance held an exhibition of work from the tutors and pupils.