Forbes, Stanhope Alexander (1857–1947), artist, was born 18 November 1857 in Dublin, the younger of two sons of William Forbes, a manager of the Midland Great Western Railway, and his wife Juliette de Guise of France. He was initially taught by a governess, Sophie Moran, who took him on trips to Galway, where her father, who was vicar of Kilcolgan, taught him how to fish. When his family moved to London, he attended Dulwich college, learning to draw under the art teacher, John Sparkes. Forbes studied at the Lambeth school of art (1874–6), before entering the Royal Academy schools (1876–8), coming under the influence of the Victorian painters John Millais and Frederick Leighton. In 1877 he visited Galway and painted outdoor figure subjects while completing a number of portrait commissions, one of which, ‘Strawberries and cream’, was of a Connemara child. On his return to London he continued to paint portraits; he first exhibited at the Royal Academy (RA) in 1878 with the painting ‘Florence’. He studied in the studio of Léon Bonnat in Montmartre, Paris (1878–80), and had his own studio on the rue Vernon. He painted at Cancale in Brittany in the summer of 1880, then joined the English artist Henry Herbert La Thangue at Quimperlé in 1881, painting scenes of peasant life in the rustic realist style of Jules Bastien-Lepage; his composition ‘A street in Brittany’ was shown at his Paris studio in 1881.
After spending three years in Brittany, he returned to England in 1883. The following year he settled in the fishing village of Newlyn, near Penzance in Cornwall, where he encountered artists such as Walter Langley and Ralph Todd, and came to be regarded as a central figure in the Newlyn colony of artists. He exhibited at the RHA in 1884 the painting ‘La marchande de châtaignes’, and continued to show there until 1914. His painting ‘A fish sale on a Cornish beach’ was exhibited at the RA in 1885; one of his most important works, it was typical of his plein air technique, and was instrumental in achieving recognition for the Newlyn artists. Forbes was a founder of the New English Art Club (1886), established in reaction to the Royal Academy. He was treasurer of the Newlyn amateur dramatic society on its formation (1886), and played an active role in Newlyn village life. When beginning ‘The village philharmonic’ (1888) in the fisherman's institute in Newlyn in 1887, he took up playing the cello; the painting won a gold medal at the Paris universal exposition. His famous painting ‘The health of the bride’ (1889) was purchased by Henry Tate, founder of London's Tate Gallery. Forbes painted ‘Soldiers and sailors: the salvation army’ (1891) after attending a Salvation Army meeting. His work ‘The quarry team’ (1894) emulated the French realist tradition in its portrayal of miners. When the Passmore Edwards art gallery opened in Newlyn in 1895, Forbes and his fellow Newlyn artists held an annual viewing of their works there before exhibiting at the RA. In 1897 he was commissioned by the Sun Insurance company to paint a panel depicting the great fire of London for the Royal Exchange; executing the painting on canvas, he then applied it to the wall by an innovative process. His painting of a horse being shod, entitled ‘The smithy’, won a second-class gold medal at the Paris international exhibition of 1899. He started a school of painting at Newlyn with his wife in 1899; educating a new generation of Newlyn artists, the school continued until 1938.
In 1904 Forbes was appointed correspondent to the Institute of France. An associate of the RA from 1892, he became a full member in 1910. Residing in Newlyn for the rest of his life, during the 1920s he painted several views of Penzance, including ‘Market Jew: Thursday’ (1923), a view of the main street, the name deriving from the Cornish ‘Margas Yow’, the original name for the settlement at Penzance. Forbes married first (1889) Elizabeth Adela Armstrong (d. 1912), of Ottawa, Canada, who was an artist at Newlyn; they had one son. He married secondly (1915) Maude Clayton Palmer, an artist, of Bexhill, England. He exhibited at the RA for the last time in 1945. He died on 2 March 1947 at Higher Faughan, Newlyn. A self-portrait is in the Aberdeen Art Gallery.