Samuel John Lamorna Birch (1869-1955) 'The Shallow River, Phillack'. Watercolour signed lower right. Bearing two labels au verso. One for New Zealand.
Samuel John Birch was born in Egremont, Cheshire, and was one of the leading figures of the second flowering of the Newlyn School. He was so smitten with the Lamorna valley and cove that he took its name as his own, becoming known as Lamorna Birch.
Birch first visited West Cornwall in the late 1880s and settled in the Lamorna
Valley in 1892. He is regarded as the father figure of the later group of 'Newlyn' artists, which included Laura and Harold Knight, Alfred Munnings, Frank Gascoigne Heath and Stanley Gardiner, known as the Lamorna group.
Birch was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1924 and was made a full Royal Academician (RA) eight years later. In his long and distinguished career, he exhibited over 200 works at the Royal Academy, as well as exhibiting throughout the Country and abroad.
54.5 cm x 68 cm