Water babies, Cornish coast

'Dorothea Sharp was a friend of Laura Knight's and their work has much in common. They shared an ability to capture in paint a feeling for light and swift movement. It is said that a legacy of one hundred pounds enabled Dorothea to become an artist, despite her parents' disapproval. With this she trained at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London, under George Clausen and David Murray, and continued her studies in Paris. Here she was particularly impressed by the paintings of Monet, an influence which she carried back to Cornwall and which is reflected in her beach scenes with children at St Ives, capturing the mood of holiday Cornwall in free, Impressionist colour' (see T. Cross, The Shining Sands, Artists in Newlyn and St Ives 1880-1930, Devon, 1994, p. 171).