Hubert Herkomer, A.R.A.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5549, 22 February 1886, Page 3

Hubert Herkomer, A.R.A.

r A GREAT PAINTER'S BEGINNING. 1 1 FROM THE HEART TO THE PEOPLE. : There is much pathos in the story of Hubert Herkomer's early struggles. When 1 the Graphic was started he conceived the 1 idea of getting on its artistic staff. He in--1 vested a sovereign — a large sum to him in ? those days, and money he could ill spare — | in a boxwood block, of a full-page Bize, and | on thia he drew a clever composition of " Gipsies on Witnbledon Common." With J this in hand, he waited upon the mighty ' potentate, Mr Thomas, the art editor. J Shown into a waiting room, the drawing waa \ taken from him to be shown to the editor. Some time he waited, his heart beating excitedly through hope and fear. Presently came the words, " Would he step in ? " 1 That was a good Bign, anyhow. But could he believe his ears, when, after some little chat, he was told that his drawing was accepted. That was credible ; but surely he must distrust his eyes when he was handed an order for eight guineas — undreamt of wealth. And again his ears seemed faithless as the wor_B fell that the august potentate would be glad to receive further contributions from his pencil. ME HERKOMER CAN SMILE NOW, but those were happy days and altogether helpful to him in his pecuniary circumstances. And indeed much of his later work is the outcome of the demands made upon him then. He had to find something to appeal to popular fancy ; and he hit upon " Chelsea Pensioners " ; and to-day the public know him best as the painter of old men. It was " The Last Muster," and pensioners attending chapel, which lifted j him high in popular favour ; and it is as j the painter of characterful old age by which he is best known to the public as a ! painter. There is character in rugged old j faces which suggests pathos ; and this | suits the popular taste. Whatever else he is, Mr Herkoiner must, before all \ things, be pathetic. There ia great power in this respect in hia picture exhibited this season of " Hard Times," representing a poor Hertfordshire labourer, out of work, who leans against a field gate, while his poor, wayworn wife, baby, and laddie rest exhausted under the hedgerow. There is sentiment, without sentimentality, in that work. The same power of appealing to human feeling ia evident in his depictions of Bavarian peasants, and in his well-known picture of the " Dockyard Gates " on the arrival of the n_wa of the loss of the Eurydice. He is a Bavarian by nativity, and a home feeling has led him at times from English types of manly character to Bavaria, and always with success. He touches the heart, and the heart knows nothing of territorial limitations. Some idea may be formed, from what has been said, of the kind of man the new Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford is. But it must also be said to his credit that he has introduced the pupil system into this country which has always prevailed in Italy, and is found vastly useful to-day in France.