Oil paint on board
Tate St Ives
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/peter-lanyon-1467" aria-label="More by Peter Lanyon" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Peter Lanyon</a>
Porthleven
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1953
abstraction
architecture
Cornwall
England
England, South West
England, Southern
from recognisable sources
harbour
landscape
places
Porthleven
seascapes and coasts
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
<p>This work exemplifies Lanyon’s idea of the ‘experiential landscape’, which involved approaching a place from different positions and combining these views with allusions to geology, history, culture and myth. Here he depicts the fishing port of Porthleven from several perspectives, revealing its two harbours and clock tower. Lanyon later identified a human presence in the work, reading the shape on the left as a fisherman with lamp and his wife wrapped in a shawl on the right. Influenced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and his theories of the unconscious, the artist saw these as figures embodying the cultural identity of his home.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint board
23 March 2001 – 9 June 2002
2002-06-09
23 March 2001 – 9 June 2002
2002-06-09
2001-03-23
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2001-03-23
1951: The Shape of a Year
Collection based display
16 December 2002 – 10 June 2004
2004-06-10
16 December 2002
2002-12-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-12-16
1950s Art and Mythology
Collection based display
11 December 2006 – 2 December 2007
2007-12-02
11 December 2006 – 2 December 2007
2007-12-02
2006-12-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-12-11
Modern Landscapes
Collection based display
25 June 2010 – 26 September 2010
2010-09-26
25 June 2010 – 26 September 2010
2010-09-26
2010-06-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-06-25
Peter Lanyon
Collection based display
30 October 2010 – 18 November 2012
2012-11-18
30 October 2010 – 18 November 2012
2012-11-18
2010-10-30
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-10-30
Gallery 15
Collection based display
26 June 2015 – 3 October 2015
2015-10-03
26 June 2015 – 3 October 2015
2015-10-03
2015-06-26
Abbot Hall Art Gallery (Kendal, UK)
http://www.abbothall.org.uk
2015-06-26
Taking Flight: St Ives in the 1950s
Loan-out
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
14 October 2017 – 31 January 2021
2021-01-31
2017-10-14
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2017-10-14
Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
13 March 2021
13 March 2021
2021-03-13
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2021-03-13
Gallery 1: Modern Art and St Ives
Collection based display
Porthleven
support: 2445 × 1219 mm
frame: 2538 × 1324 × 85 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1953
<p>This work exemplifies Lanyon’s idea of the ‘experiential landscape’, which involved approaching a place from different positions and combining these views with allusions to geology, history, culture and myth. Here he depicts the fishing port of Porthleven from several perspectives, revealing its two harbours and clock tower. Lanyon later identified a human presence in the work, reading the shape on the left as a fisherman with lamp and his wife wrapped in a shawl on the right. Influenced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and his theories of the unconscious, the artist saw these as figures embodying the cultural identity of his home.</p>

Display caption
2007-05-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N06151</b> PORTHLEVEN 1951
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Peter Lanyon’ b.r. and on back ‘Porthleven Peter Lanyon 1951’.
<br/>Oil on hardboard, 96 1/4×48 (244·5×122).
<br/>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1953.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Bought by the C.A.S. from the artist at Arts Council exhibition 1951.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Arts Council, <i>60 Paintings for' 51</i>, and tour, 1951 (29, repr. pl.2).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> A.D.B. Sylvester, ‘Big Pictures for the Festival’ in <i>Burlington Magazine</i>, XCIII, 1951, p.329; J. P. Hodin, ‘Peter Lanyon’ in <i>XX<sup>e</sup> Siècle</i>, n.s., XXV, No.22, Christmas 1963, pp.91–3, repr. p.91.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Art d'Aujourd' hui</i>, IV, No.2, 1953, p.4; Patrick Heron, <i>The Changing Forms of Art</i>, 1955, pl.10.</p>
<p>Painted in 1951 for the Arts Council exhibition. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> originally intended for this exhibition became so overloaded through repainting that the artist destroyed it and executed the present work in four hours. The idea was built up gradually with the help of five constructions, e.g. the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>metal</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/k/kinetic-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Kinetic art'"><span>mobile</span></a> exhibited at Gimpel Fils in 1954 (30), used in the lower part of the picture and two constructions, of wood and glass and of wood and sheet metal, in the artist's possession. ‘My “constructions” are not complete things in themselves but are experiments in space to establish the illusion and the content of the space in the painting. At the time of the “Porthleven” I had not evolved a way of developing an image in my mind and had to explore it in actual space before painting it.’ Later the artist dispensed with actual constructions but still sees ‘the constructive process as a way of developing imagery’ which ‘is I believe the way in which <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract Art</span></a> is becoming fuller and reaching a new content. For this I am entirely indebted to Gabo’ (letter from the artist, 6 September 1958; see also Patrick Heron, ‘Peter Lanyon’ in <i>Arts</i>, XXX, No.5, 1956, pp.33–7).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction architecture Cornwall England England, Southern England, South West from recognisable sources harbour landscape places Porthleven seascapes and coasts townscape townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions