Harold Harvey was a prominent member of the Newlyn School artists’ colony in Cornwall, which flourished between 1880-1940 and marked a significant chapter in the story of British art at the turn of the 20th century. The lives of local fishing communities and the distinct Cornish light developed an Impressionist-inspired body of work amongst the Newlyn School painters.

Born in Penzance, Harvey was a true ‘son of Cornwall’ and formed part of the subequent generation of Newlyn School painters, which included Laura Knight, Harold Knight, Dod and Ernest Procter. While many of the Newlyn artists were temporary visitors, Harvey rarely left Cornwall and his subjects were drawn from life around him: rural workers, children and play and intimate interiors such as the present.

Painted in 1917, the outbreak of the First World War restricted Harvey’s movements. No longer allowed to paint along the coast, Harvey turned his attention to indoor subjects. The Blue Gown is a portrait of Harvey’s wife, Gertrude, dressing by the window of their bedroom at Maen Cottage, Newlyn. It relates closely to a similar subject, Reflections, 1916, now in the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil.

It displays Harvey’s sensitive treatment of light, which is a defining characteristic throughout his work. Here, light floods through the window and illuminates the bedroom wall, with subtle hints of pink and blue reflected from the shimmering gown. Light captures her elegant fingers as she puts on a glove, while the angled mirror adds another compositional dynamic to the work. Beyond, trees are rendered in verdant green. The quite reflection and solitude of these works, with echoes of Vermeer, found a willing market when exhibited in London, with the present work shown the same year at the Royal Academy.