In 1902 SJ Lamorna Birch met and married Emily Vivian Houghton and moved into Flagstaff Cottage above Lamorna Cove (purchasing the freehold 21 years later). Importantly for Birch, because he was equally passionate about fly fishing as he was about painting, a nearby trout stream ran through the valley and his studio garden before spilling out into the cove. Our Green Valley pictures that stream.

Birch’s fly-fishing expertise and the relationship between his fishing and art was noted in his Times' obituary: “He tied his own flies to perfection and to see him cast into the wind though a small opening in the bushes that fringed Lamorna steam was to witness a truly artistic performance …. His outdoor eye was especially sharp when painting water. He saw it with the understanding of both artist and fisherman.”

On the verso the painting is further signed and indistinctly inscribed 'for International Exhibition--- " S.J Lamorna Birch. Lamorna Penzance'. Such was the esteem in which Birch was held that in the 1920s there were more paintings by the artist exhibited in galleries around the world, than by any other living British artist.