LONDON.- Falmouth Art Gallery is now even closer to achieving its ambitious aim of bringing home an internationally significant masterpiece by John Singer Sargent. The gallery has been awarded a grant of £62,000 from The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, towards the purchase of Portrait of Charles Napier Hemy, 1905 by celebrated American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). The portrait depicts the Falmouth-born artist Charles Napier Hemy (1841–1917), who was a friend of the celebrated painter Sargent. Both artist and sitter are of great significance to Falmouth, the South West and internationally. Sargent, although American, spent extended time in Europe, executing some of his best loved works on English soil. Charles Napier Hemy was Falmouth’s first Royal Academician and one of the founding members of the first Falmouth Art Gallery.