Throughout the 1890s, the title "Newlyn School" was regularly and familiarly used to describe the group of artists who painted in and around the West Cornwall fishing village of Newlyn.

The first artists to settle were Walter Langley and Edwin Harris in 1882 followed a year or two later by Stanhope Forbes and many others. They were attracted mainly for three reasons - the mild climate and clear light; the varied subjects all around them (the harbour, the fisherfolk and their occupations) and the companionship of other artists (several had become friends while attending the ateliers in Paris and Antwerp a few years earlier as students). A number of the artists took as their inspiration the works of the French 'plein air' realist painter, Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848 - 1884) with his sympathetic depiction of the life of simple working folk.