Fitting Out, Mousehole Harbour

Painted in 1919, the year after the First World War's end, Fitting Out, Mousehole Harbour records the resumption of ordinary Cornish maritime life. 'Fitting out' describes the seasonal preparation of fishing boats before a new season — replacing ropes, caulking hulls, painting, and rigging — and Forbes had spent decades observing and recording these practical rituals. The timing in 1919 carries an implicit resonance: boats being prepared for peaceful fishing again, communities returning to the rhythms interrupted by war, men who had survived the conflict reclaiming their traditional work. Forbes, now sixty, was among the last generation to paint this particular type of working harbour scene before motorisation and changing fishing practices transformed Cornish coastal life beyond recognition. Cartwright Hall in Bradford, which acquired the work, was a major municipal gallery that actively collected contemporary British painting.

The boat hull, raised for inspection and work, becomes the dominant formal element — a curving mass that Forbes uses to anchor the composition. The workers' figures are placed around it in natural, ungrouped arrangements that avoid artistic contrivance. The palette is characteristically muted and weather-worn.