The Steps of a House at Mousehole, Cornwall 1880

Walter Langley made this watercolour of steps in Mousehole, Cornwall, sometime around the turn of the 20th century. Langley was part of a wave of artists who settled in Cornwall, drawn by the picturesque scenery and the unique way of life in this isolated part of England. The image itself creates meaning through its focus on the everyday. Notice how Langley’s composition directs our eye not to the sea or landscape, but to the mundane architecture of the village. This choice reflects a broader trend in late 19th-century art toward social realism. Artists turned their attention to the lives of ordinary people, often in rural settings, celebrating the dignity of labour and the beauty of the natural world. But it’s also important to remember the art market and institutions in which paintings like this circulated. Paintings of Cornwall appealed to middle-class buyers seeking idealized images of rural life, a far cry from the reality of urban existence. To understand this work better, we can research the socio-economic conditions in Cornwall at the time, as well as the art market that sustained Langley's practice.