Cornubia

Details

Mary Jewels (1886-1977)
Cornubia
signed 'MARY JEWELS' (lower left), signed again and dated 'MARY JEWELS/1947' (on the reverse) signed again and inscribed 'Cornubia/Mary Jewels/Vine Cottage/The Coombe/Newlyn' (on a label attached to the reverse)
oil on canvas
30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1940-50

Provenance

Mrs Cornelia Dobson.

Literature

A. Bowness, Mary Jewels and Naive Painting, Painter and Sculptor I, no. 3., 1958.
M. Whybrow, The Innocent Eye: Primitive and Naive Painters in Cornwall, Bristol, 1999, p. 112 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Penzance, Newlyn Gallery, Mary Jewels, 1977, no. 12.
London, Tate Gallery, St Ives 1939-64, Twenty Five Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery, February-April 1985, no. 3, p. 150 (illustrated).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In his introduction to the 1985 catalogue, Dr. David Brown commented on the inclusion of the present work together with Cornish Landscape in the catalogue: 'I cast my net very wide and I included Mary Jewels because I think she is a very under-estimated painter and was worth showing'.

Mrs Cornelia Dobson, the wife of Frank Dobson and sister of Mary Jewels, considered that this work represented the fertility of Cornwall. Cornubia was the Latin word for Cornwall and there are inns in Hayle and Bristol called the Cornubia (see op. cit., p. 150).

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