Sir Hubert von Herkomer

{"Id":882,"Name":"Sir Hubert von Herkomer","Biography":"Hubert Herkomer was born in Bavaria. His father, a wood-carver emigrated to Southampton when Hubert was a child. He attended the South Kensington Schools from 1866, and studied under \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=1854\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELuke Fildes\u003C/a\u003E [1843-1927]. Herkomer produced engravings for the \u003Cu\u003EGraphic\u003C/u\u003E magazine, early in his career. He worked in a variety of areas, particularly social realism, including the famous paintings \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=5424\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003EOn Strike\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E [1891], and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=5425\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003EHard Times\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E [1885], illustrating the inhumanity shown towards employees by both farmers and industrial employers at that time.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHerkomer was a very successful, and versatile individual. He produced many portraits, some of them of male sitters being a little short of inspiration and flair. In truth this was less his fault than the requirements of the sitters to look sombre, serious, and dignified. He became ARA in 1879, and a full Academician in 1890. In 1899 Herkomer was en-nobled by Kaiser Wilhelm 11 (1859-1941), becoming a \u0026lsquo;von,\u0026rsquo; which he always added to his name thereafter. He was knighted in 1908. He built a grandiose Victorian house in Bushey, Hertfordshire, named \u0026lsquo;Lululand,\u0026rsquo; after his second wife who was killed rescuing a child from a road accident. At Lululand, Herkomer had his own theatre, where he produced plays, and his own operas.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHe founded an art school, where his most famous pupil was \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2234\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELucy Kemp-Welsh\u003C/a\u003E [1869-1958]. She has left behind a vivid record of his sarcasm, and severity, but also his unstinting praise of what he saw to be good work.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHerkomer died in 1914. I have not been able to establish if this was connected with the outbreak of the First World War, which must have been a total disaster for the Anglo-German artist. Herkomer\u0026rsquo;s social realism paintings still have the capacity to generate anger from viewers at the exploitation found acceptable in late 19th century England.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EA great life from humble beginnings.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E \u003Cdiv align=\u0022center\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022intro\u0022\u003EObituary of Hubert von Herkomer, \u003Cu\u003EThe Times\u003C/u\u003E, Wednesday 1st April 1914.\u003C/span\u003E\u003C/div\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVersatility in Art\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHubert von Herkomer, whose death is announced on another page, was one of four Royal Academicians of foreign birth who made a considerable name for themselves as painters during the later years of Queen Victoria\u0027s reign, the others being \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=8\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir Lawrence Alma-Tadema\u003C/a\u003E [1836-1912], \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=187\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMr Sargent\u003C/a\u003E [1856-1925] and the late \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=216\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMr Abbey\u003C/a\u003E [1852-1911]. A fifth was the sculptor, Sir Edgar Boehm [1834-1890], who belonged to a somewhat older generation; and there is a sixth, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=495\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMr J.J. Shannon\u003C/a\u003E [1862-1923] of more recent election. The six offer a remarkable proof of the way in which we alone among the nations of the world offer our highest positions in art to men not born or bred among us.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEarly Vicissitudes\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHerkomer was born in 1849 at Waal, near Langdebourg am Lech, in Bavaria, and was the son of Lorens Herkomer, master-joiner, and his wife born Josephine Niggi. The mother had a marked gift for music, which was inherited by her painter-son and more than shared by her nieces, the well-known Marie and Mathilde Wurm: and when it came to a question of career for him the mother\u0027s wish was for music, though the father decided that he should be a \u0027free painter.\u0027 When the boy was two years old his parents, feeling the hard times which followed the troubles of \u002748 emigrated to America: but the move there was not successful, and after six years they returned, not to Germany, but Southampton. Here the father worked at his trade, suffering many privations, but occasionally receiving a good commission; and at 15 or 16 we find the boy settled in lodgings in the Wandsworth-road, attending the South Kensington classes with much older fellow students as Luke Fildes and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=1258\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EHenry Woods\u003C/a\u003E [1846-1921], who were one day to be his colleagues in the Academy. Of ordinary education he had received little, but his great natural cleverness made up for all deficiencies. About 1867 he came under the influence of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/ art.asp?aid=3788\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EFredrick Walker\u003C/a\u003E [1840-1875]; and although it was no case of definite teaching, Walker\u0027s style and method had for many years the strongest effect on Herkomer\u0027s art. At 19 he was earning a bare living by his drawings for the illustrated papers and by stencilling work at South Kensington. A few years later he made a mark by a drawing at the Dudley Gallery, the first study which afterwards developed into the \u0027Chelsea Pensioners\u0027; and this was bought for \u0026pound;40 by Mr Strahan, the publisher. Soon the young man was able to visit the Bavarian Highlands, taking his parents with him; and henceforth Bavarian landscapes and scenes of peasant life were among his most frequent subjects. His first Royal Academy picture was called \u003Cu\u003EAfter the Toil of the Day\u003C/u\u003E, was hung on the line in 1873. It had much success; Mr Mansell Lewis bought it for \u0026pound;500; and the young artist was henceforth regarded as a made man. Working with great rapidity, he was able the very next year to exhibit his great picture of \u003Cu\u003EThe Last Muster: Chelsea Pensioners in Church\u003C/u\u003E - the picture which we saw sold in 1909 for over \u0026pound;3000 in the Quilter sale. Herkomer himself has said that he was disappointed with the picture and its composition, but the Academicians and the public were enthusiastic, and when \u003Cu\u003EThe Last Muster\u003C/u\u003E went in 1878 to the Paris Exhibition the painter received, with \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=77\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMillais\u003C/a\u003E [1829-1896] alone of English painters the coveted \u003Cem\u003EMedaille d\u0027Honneur\u003C/em\u003E. He was under 30 years of age; but he had reached the height of his achievement and of his celebrity.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPortraits and Landscapes.\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EFrom this time forward Herkomer\u0027s career was one of uniform success. He turned to portrait painting; in watercolour he produced the life-size half-lengths of Wagner [1813-1883], Tennyson [1809-1892], and \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2790\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ERuskin\u003C/a\u003E [1819-1900], and in oils that of Archibald Forbes [1838-1900] and the celebrated \u003Cu\u003EWhite Lady\u003C/u\u003E (Miss Grant) and its pendant \u003Cu\u003EThe Black Lady\u003C/u\u003E, engraved under the title \u003Cu\u003EEntranced\u003C/u\u003E. These were the most famous among a list which must have exceeded a hundred, many of them pictures of very eminent men and women, at first in England and afterwards in Germany and America. This brought wealth, so that Herkomer was able to amuse himself by painting landscapes and subjects for his own pleasure, to build at Bushey the elaborate quasi-medieval castle called Lululaund, and to fill it with art work done by his own hand or those of his pupils, and to give a happy old age to the parents to whom he was so devoted. When his mother died he built a tower in her memory at the old Bavarian home. He also painted and showed at the Royal Academy a vast picture of the town council of Landaberg, following this up a few years later with the well-remembered \u003Cu\u003ECouncil of the Royal Academy\u003C/u\u003E. Faulty these may have been, but life-size groups as animated and full of character and movement have scarcely been produced since the time of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=797\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EFrans Hals\u003C/a\u003E [1580-1666]. Herkomer\u0027s versatility was remarkable. He could paint, etch, engrave, work in metal, enamel (this he particularly enjoyed), play the zither and the piano, compose music, write plays and act them. He founded, as everybody knows, a school of art in Bushey, which flourished for many years; many of his pupils have become known, especially as engravers. At Bushey, too, he had lately devoted himself to bringing a new art or rather a new invention - the cinematograph - under the jurisdiction of the highest taste. He lent his gardens for the production of a number of \u0027scenarios\u0027 on the film, and not a few excellent stories were adapted, dramatized, and photographed under his supervision: and one or two of these he supplied with accompanying music of his own composition. It was an elaborate experiment, to which on artistic and public grounds, he attached much importance. A few years ago he wrote a book, entitled \u003Cu\u003EMy school and my Gospel\u003C/u\u003E, containing a full account of the Bushey experiment. He talked well on many subjects. He was for many years Slade Professor at Oxford; and some of the pictures which will best preserve his fame are the rapid and vigorous portraits of leading Oxford men. Such as Dean Liddell, which he painted in an hour in the presence of his class. He wrote too, with ease; and, slight as had been his literary education, his two or three volumes have had considerable success. He was elected ARA in 1879 and RA in 1890. He was knighted in 1907; and some time earlier the German Emperor authorized him to use the prefix von. He was three times married. Lady Herkomer survives him, and he leaves a family.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E \u003Cu\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESource:\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/u\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EVictorian Art in Britain\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/li\u003E\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":true,"HasLetters":true,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":233}