Joan Gillchrest English, 1918-2008
Frame: 50.5 x 39.5 cm ( 19 7/8 x 15.6 in.)
Provenance
My great grandfather was Joseph Evans Cogger. He was coastguard in Penzance before the war. His daughter Sybil was my grandmother. She lived in Perranuthnoe as a child and always loved it. By the time she was married, she was living in London as indeed the whole family did. I myself was born in St George's hospital, Hyde Park Corner. However she and my father Alan returned to Perranuthnoe during the war for safety. Her other, much younger son, my uncle, Richard, fell in love with the whole area of Penzance and came on holiday as an adult until his death in 1987. It was he who bought the two paintings at some point presumably between around 1975 and 1987 but I'm afraid I don't know when. I inherited the two paintings after my grandfather died in 2001. The grave above in Perranuthnoe churchyard shows Joseph Cogger, then my uncle, Richard, followed by Sybil, his mother, and Ken, his father (my grandparents).Incidentally, my stepmother Karen Evans used to live with her grandmother in the house right next to the museum in St Ives, and she actually knew Bryan Pearce! It's the house with the very steep steps (Wheal Dream) and there used to be a picture framer who lived underneath.