Collection: ELEANOR MARY HUGHES, 1882-1959

Eleanor Hughes (née Waymouth) was an important figure in the Lamorna colony of artists; a close friend of Laura and Harold Knight , Lamorna Birch, the Napers and SImpsons. Eleanor was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1882 but to West Country parents. Eleanor first visited Britain at the turn of the century when she studied art under C N Worsley and attended the Forbes School of Painting for a short period.

In 1907 Eleanor returned to Newlyn where she renewed her studies under Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes. In Forbes’ school she met fellow artist Robert Morson Hughes and the couple married in 1910. They designed and built their home, Chyangweal, near St Buryan, close to Lamorna. Eleanor also owned a studio in the Lamorna Valley a mile from the couple’s home.

Eleanor Hughes had a particular interest in country trees. Wallace comments in the Exhibition catalogue for Women Artists in Cornwall (1996) that Hughes 'had a particularly delicate style which has been compared to that of Rennie Mackintosh'. Her works are notable for this delicacy of touch, her precise process being evidenced in the pencil lines apparent under the washes of watercolour. Often pencil is also applied over the surface of the watercolour washes and brushwork to help describe the texture and form of a tree or to add detail to foliage.  

In 1911 Eleanor Hughes began to exhibit at the Royal Academy and later at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. From 1912 Eleanor signed her works and exhibited under her married name. In 1933 she was elected to full membership of the R.I.. Eleanor exhibited extensively at the Royal Institute and Royal Academy and was an active organiser of the Newlyn and St. Ives exhibitions. Eleanor Hughes maintained her friendship with Dame Laura Knight throughout her lifetime and passed away at her Lamorna home in 1959.