Stanhope Alexander Forbes [also known as Stanhope Forbes] was born in Dublin, Ireland on 18 November 1857 and was the son of William Forbes, manager of the Midland Great Western Railway in Ireland. As a child he moved with his family to England. He was educated at Dulwich College, where his talent for drawing was encouraged from his art master, John Charles Lewis Sparkes (1833?-1907). Sparkes was an influential educator. He taught at Lambeth School of Art from 1857 and was Principal of Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School) from 1875 to 1898. Probably at the suggestion of Sparkes, Forbes studied at Lambeth School of Art from 1874 to 1876. He then gained admission to the Royal Academy Schools in London where his tutors included Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

After leaving the RA Schools in 1878, Forbes went to France and for two years attended Leon Bonnat's Atelier in Clichy, Paris. He spent his summers working in Brittany with Henry Herbert La Thangue (1859-1939), with whom he had studied at the RA Schools.

By 1884 Forbes had returned to England and later that year moved to Newlyn in Cornwall. He soon became a leading figure in the art colony there. In 1889 he married the painter Elizabeth Adela Armstrong (1859-1912), subsequently known as Elizabeth Adela Forbes. Together they established the Stanhope Forbes School of Painting in Newlyn in 1899.

Following the death of Elizabeth in 1912, he continued to run the school alone for many years. In 1915 he married Maude Clayton Palmer (1880-1952), a former pupil.

Forbes began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London in 1878 and continued to do so virtually every year until 1945. During his long career as an an artist he also exhibited at Agnew & Sons Gallery, Dowdeswell Gallery, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, New English Art Club, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London; the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at the St. Ives Arts Club.

He was a founder member of the New English Art Club in (NEAC) in 1886 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1892 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1910. He was also elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1919 and of the St. Ives Club in 1928.

He died at his home, Higher Faughan, Newlyn, on 2 March 1947.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}