Moffat Peter Lindner

Moffat Lindner (1852-1949) was an artist of considerable national and international standing. He worked mostly in watercolours, at first very detailed, but gradually becaming more impressionistic, and he often painted rivers and harbours at sunset, under moonlight or at dawn. He exhibited regularly at the RA, and won medals in Paris and Barcelona. His relationship with St Ives spanned over 60 years, linking the earliest days of the colony right through to the arrival of the modernists in the 1940s.

Lindner took a very active part in the artistic life of the town both as organiser and benefactor. He encouraged and supported young artists, and played key roles in the St Ives Arts Club and St Ives Society of Artists. He had “a ready eye in noticing excellence in all types of work, including the advanced”, and many artists benefited from his foresight and generosity. He offered unfailing support, advice and encouragement, as well as financial assistance, and made the Porthmeor Studios available at reasonable rents. One artist in particular who benefited was Frances Hodgkin, considered one of New Zealand’s most prestigious and influential painters, and Lindner bought several of her paintings and offered her Studio 7 at Porthmeor rent-free.

However his most enduring legacy was the survival of Porthmeor Studios. He stepped in to buy the complex in 1929 when Barclays Bank were looking to sell, and then arranged for its sale to the Borlase Smart Memorial Fund shortly before his death in 1949, with the proviso that the studios should be retained for artists in perpetuity. This ensured the survival of the studios as the last reminder of mixed building use by fishermen and artists.