A JOINT bid involving the Falmouth Art Gallery and the first of its kind in the country, has helped save two important Newlyn style masterpieces for Cornwall. The bid raised £111,660 with the main funding coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and The MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund.

Penlee House Gallery and Museum and the Falmouth Art Gallery worked in partnership to save the paintings from going to America, where the Newlyn school artists are much collected. The two major Newlyn style works: In the Whiting Ground, about 1900 by Harold Harvey (1874-1941) for Penlee House and Return of the Fleet,1888 by Sir Frank Brangwyn RA (1867-1956) for Falmouth, are both outstanding examples of the Newlyn style and both depict earning a living from the sea.

The Brangwyn picture shows the building of a pier in 1888, with the wooden struts holding the infill in place before the stones are laid. Sir Frank Brangwyn has been described as the most prolific British artist since Turner, and was the first Royal Academician to be honoured with a one-person show at the Royal Academy whilst alive.

He studied as an apprentice to William Morris, and was a friend and admirer of the Falmouth marine artist Charles Napier Hemy.

The Harold Harvey work shows in the far distance, St Michael's Mount, grounding the picture firmly in Newlyn.

The two paintings will be on show side by side at one or other venue over the coming year. They will go on display at Falmouth Art Gallery first, from this week and will be at Penlee House from June 12.