Gertrude Harvey was the eighth of the ten children born to Ann Crews Bodinnar, née Curnow, and her husband John Matthews Bodinnar, a cooper.[1][2]
Her maternal grandfather, William Curnow, was a market gardener and a notable botanist.[3] Harvey acted as a model for students at the Forbes School of Painting in Newlyn and through the social scene associated with the School met Harold Harvey for whom she also modelled.[4] The couple married in, or around, 1911 and set up home at Maen Cottage in Newlyn.[1] Through modeling, Gertrude Harvey became fascinated by art and by the working methods of the artists based in Newlyn.[2] Among those she modelled for were Laura Knight, Harold Knight and Ruth Simpson.[3] Largely self-taught she became an accomplished artist in her own right, mainly painting still lifes, flowers and landscapes.[5] Initially, Harvey exhibited and sold her oil paintings and other works through the local Newlyn Art Gallery but throughout the 1920s and 1930s exhibited in various London galleries.[1] One of her London exhibitions, with a catalogue introduction by George Bernard Shaw, was a sell-out with every painting being purchased.[5] As well as taking part in joint exhibitions with her husband, notably at the Leicester Galleries in 1918 and 1920, Harvey also exhibited works at the Royal Academy.[4][3] Between 1930 and 1949, Harvey had twenty works selected for Royal Academy exhibitions.[4] From 1945 to 1949 she was regular exhibitor with the St Ives Society of Artists.[2]
After Harold Harvey died in 1941, Gertrude Harvey continued living at Maen Cottage until 1960, when she moved into a nursing home in St Just.[4][1]
