Hubert von Herkomer

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Self-portrait by Hubert Herkomer, ca.1880

Sir Hubert von Herkomer CVO, RA (born as Hubert Herkomer; 26 May 1849 – 31 March 1914) was a British painter of German descent, and also a pioneering film-director and composer. Though a very successful portraitist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered for his earlier works that took a realistic approach to the conditions of life of the poor. Hard Times, showing the family of a travelling day-labourer at the side of a road, is probably his best known work.

Life

Herkomer was born at Waal, in Bavaria. His family was poor and his mother tried to supplement the earnings of his father by giving music lessons. Once his mother gave him a half sovereign for some shopping: "It was the last piece of gold in the place. I lost it. My parents were in despair". <Chums annual, 1896, page 279> Lorenz Herkomer, his father and a wood-carver of great ability, left Bavaria in 1851 with his wife and child for the United States, settling in Cleveland, Ohio. They soon returned to Europe and settled in Southampton in 1857, before moving to a house called Dyreham in Bushey in 1874 (by this time Herkomer's father had remarried to a lady called Anna Weise). Hubert's education was slight: "He went to school for a month or two, and, falling ill never returned." (Chums)

In a lengthy interview for Chums boys' annual in 1896 Herkomer recalled his childhood. "We had an anxious time of it when I was a boy. We were constantly in want of money..... I was always inclined to art, and as a little boy worked principally at my father's bench, but by the time I had turned twelve I had produced quite a number of water-colour drawings. The reputation I gained among my play fellows, however, was as a maker of kites." He also crafted mechanical toys including clowns and wagons to give to his friends.

He lived for some time at Southampton and in the school of art there began his art training. An uncle in America commissioned his father to carve the four Evangelists in wood. Receiving some money his father determined to take Hubert to Munich so that he could study art whilst his father worked on the carving. In Chums 1896 he recalled his trip vividly: "Ah, how I remember that first visit to Germany! ... We crossed to Antwerp in a cattle boat ... And never shall I forget the miseries of that voyage. And then there were the railway carriages on the other side. We were compelled to travel fourth-class, in the company of people who were no less filthy than the carriages; and I remember.....I swore a big oath that if ever I had any money I would travel in the most luxurious style possible. I have never forgotten that oath." The pair led a hard life whilst in Munich, but he stated that "they were very happy days" and his father sat as model for him during that time. In 1866 he entered upon a more serious course of study at the South Kensington Schools, and in 1869 exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy. He sold his first picture for two guineas but by the time he was twenty-four he had sold a picture for five hundred pounds.

In same year, he also began working as an illustrator for the newly founded newspaper The Graphic, a deliberate rival of the Illustrated London News. It was by his 1875 oil, The Last Muster, after a woodblock from 1871, that he definitely established his position as an artist of high distinction at the Academy. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1879, and academician in 1890; an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1893, and a full member in 1894; and in 1885 he was appointed Slade professor at Oxford, a position which he held until 1894.

Hubert von Herkomer (1849–1914), self-portrait

In 1899 he was ennobled as "Ritter von Herkomer" by King Otto of Bavaria, who appointed him Knight of the Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown. The same year, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite for Arts by Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1907 he was knighted by King Edward VII.

He exhibited a very large number of memorable portraits, figure subjects and landscapes, in oil and watercolour; he achieved marked success as a worker in enamel, as an etcher, mezzotint engraver and illustrative draughtsman; and he exercised wide influence upon art education by means of the Herkomer School (Incorporated), at Bushey, which he founded in 1883 and directed without payment until 1904, when he retired. It was later voluntarily wound up in 1926 having been run up to that time by Lucy Kemp-Welch, and is now defunct.

Despite being a prominent member of Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as well as being on familiar terms with the royal family, Herkomer was never totally accepted by the British establishment: He was ultimately a victim of the deteriorating relationship between Great Britain and Germany, where he shuttled in between, spending most of his summers in Bavaria.

Herkomer's massive house, Lululaund, named after Lulu Griffith, second of his three wives, served as his studio, school, theatre and movie studio, where he put on productions of his own plays and musical compositions. It was designed by the prominent American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Herkomer painted a portrait of the architect.

Four of his pictures, Found (1885), Sir Henry Tate (1897), Portrait of Lady Tate (1899) and The Council of the Royal Academy (1908), are in the national collection at Tate. In 1907, he received the honorary degree of DCL at Oxford, and a knighthood was conferred upon him by the king in addition to the commandership of the Royal Victorian Order with which he was already decorated.

Herkomer was also a pioneering filmmaker. He established a studio in Lululaund and directed some seven historical costume dramas, designed to be shown accompanied by his own music. None of them seem to have survived.

Herkomer died at Budleigh Salterton on 31 March 1914 and was buried in St James's church, Bushey.

Von Herkomer has paintings in several British Collections including Manchester Art Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Oldham, Derby Art Gallery and the City of London.[1] The largest collection of his work is held by Bushey Museum, UK, and some is in the Herkomer Museum, Landsberg am Lech, Germany.

Gallery

  • Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union (workhouse), 1878

  • The Last Muster, 1875, his first Royal Academy hit, based on his earlier print below

  • Hard Times (1885).

  • Portrait of Henry Hobson Richardson, 1886

  • Poster for the rally initiated by Herkomer (1907).

  • A Guard-Room at Aldershot (1870)

  • Sunday at the Chelsea Hospital (1871).

  • The 'Schuhplattl' Dance (1873)

  • Beauty's Altar, 1900]]

Writings

  • Art Tuition, (Peacock, Printer, 1882; p19) - lecture in Birmingham Town Hall, on February 10, 1882.
  • The Pictorial Music Play. (The Magazine of Art, July 1889, pp. 316–24).[2]
  • Scenic Art. (The Magazine of Art, July 1889, pp. 316–24).[2]
  • Autobiography of Hubert Herkomer (Printed for private circulation, 1890, p71).
  • Etching and Mezzotint Engraving (Macmillan, London 1892, p107).
  • A new Black and White Art, 1896, p58.
  • A certain phase of lithography (Macmillan, London 1910, p38) - a lecture in Lululaund, for invited guests, on January 27, 1910.
  • My School and my Gospel (London : A. Constable and Co. Ltd., 1908).[3]
  • The Herkomers. Vol. 1. (Macmillan, London 1910).
  • The Herkomers. Vol. 2. (Macmillan, London 1911).[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Hubert von Herkomer, BBC, accessed August 2011
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Quoted by Uta Grund, Zwischen den Künsten (Revised thesis, doctoral, Berlin 1999, p243.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: PDF-versions are facsimiles and are complete. So-called "Full Text" (*.txt)-Versions from same sources are not, missing dozens of pages, as of 20090214.

Further reading

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