Sigisbert Bosch Reitz

Sigisbert Chretien Bosch Reitz (1860-1938) was a Dutch painter who travelled widely in Holland, England France, Italy and Japan and was also associated with the Laren School. He adopted an impressionist and symbolist style, but he worked slowly and with great attention to detail, so produced relatively few paintings.

He came to St Ives in 1890, and was closely associated with the artist colony for much of the next 18 years. He was a founder member of the St Ives Arts Club in 1890, and painted a portrait of another member, Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1892. ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ was part of the Dowdeswell Exhibition of 1890, a show for painters connected to Cornwall.

A photo of Studio 10 taken in 1891 is the first known image of a Porthmeor Studio, and includes his painting of a St Ives fish market which he exhibited on Show Day 1892. In 1899 he painted the St Ives fishing fleet, an aesthetic composition of boats, sails and masts in gracefully rippling water. Titled ‘Harbour at St Ives’, it won a medal in the Paris World Exposition in 1900, and can be seen in Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Text: Ben Crack