DOI Heft:
Nr. 108 (February, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of William Lee Hankey, R. I.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0400
W. Lee Hankey
how to express it, is the best equipment that an
artist can have—it is certainly the one which leads
most surely to lasting success in his profession.
This decorative inclination in Mr. Lee Hankey’s
art is probably the result of his early training. His
first experience was gained as a designer of furniture,
carpets, textile fabrics, and wall-papers; and his
efforts at picture making were for some years con-
fined to surreptitious sketches, often worked at in
office hours and hastily hidden away when the head
of the office in which he was employed made an
unwelcome appearance. This little breach of
discipline was, however, excusable, because by his
search for wider knowledge the young designer
was really fitting himself better for the particular
branch of practice on which he chanced to be
engaged, and was mastering more completely the
principles which lie at the foundation of all good
design. When what may be
called the probationary period of
his career came to an end he
entered the Chester School of
Art, and under the master of that
school, Mr. W. G. Schröder, he
made such steady progress that
he was able before long to gain a
scholarship at the Royal College
of Art, at South Kensington.
No doubt the satisfactory nature
of this progress was due in some
measure to the drilling which he
had received previously as a de-
signer ; he had learned during
the laborious years he had spent
in the drawing-office to handle
his materials with precision and
directness,and torealisethevalue
of broad simplicity.
But, like so many men who
attended the Royal College of
Art in the days when the old
South Kensington System was
still in vogue, he did not derive
much benefit from his stay there.
Not only did he feel the lack of
proper instruction, but he had
also to conform to rules and
regulations which, as he saw,
tended to hamper his develop-
ment ; and he was, moreover,
obliged to give up much of his
time to teaching other students
the things which he had come to
the school to learn for himself.
296
The absurdity of his position after a while im-
pressed him so strongly that he rebelled against
the restrictions which fenced him round, and for-
feited his scholarship because there was no other
way open to him of preserving his independence.
It is certainly to his credit that he should have
had the courage to take a Step so decided and in
some respects so full of risk; he abandoned a
position which was not without possibilities—which
had, indeed, some material advantages—and to
satisfy his convictions chose a course which must
at first sight have seemed a little indefinite.
Yet subsequent events have proved that he was
right in cutting himself free from an entanglement
which was as dangerous as it was irksome to an
artist of his spirit. There was no allowance made
in the South Kensington Curriculum for poetry or
Sentiment, the thinker was not encouraged, and
WATER-COLOUR STUDY FOR “SISTERS,:
BY W. LEE HANKEY
how to express it, is the best equipment that an
artist can have—it is certainly the one which leads
most surely to lasting success in his profession.
This decorative inclination in Mr. Lee Hankey’s
art is probably the result of his early training. His
first experience was gained as a designer of furniture,
carpets, textile fabrics, and wall-papers; and his
efforts at picture making were for some years con-
fined to surreptitious sketches, often worked at in
office hours and hastily hidden away when the head
of the office in which he was employed made an
unwelcome appearance. This little breach of
discipline was, however, excusable, because by his
search for wider knowledge the young designer
was really fitting himself better for the particular
branch of practice on which he chanced to be
engaged, and was mastering more completely the
principles which lie at the foundation of all good
design. When what may be
called the probationary period of
his career came to an end he
entered the Chester School of
Art, and under the master of that
school, Mr. W. G. Schröder, he
made such steady progress that
he was able before long to gain a
scholarship at the Royal College
of Art, at South Kensington.
No doubt the satisfactory nature
of this progress was due in some
measure to the drilling which he
had received previously as a de-
signer ; he had learned during
the laborious years he had spent
in the drawing-office to handle
his materials with precision and
directness,and torealisethevalue
of broad simplicity.
But, like so many men who
attended the Royal College of
Art in the days when the old
South Kensington System was
still in vogue, he did not derive
much benefit from his stay there.
Not only did he feel the lack of
proper instruction, but he had
also to conform to rules and
regulations which, as he saw,
tended to hamper his develop-
ment ; and he was, moreover,
obliged to give up much of his
time to teaching other students
the things which he had come to
the school to learn for himself.
296
The absurdity of his position after a while im-
pressed him so strongly that he rebelled against
the restrictions which fenced him round, and for-
feited his scholarship because there was no other
way open to him of preserving his independence.
It is certainly to his credit that he should have
had the courage to take a Step so decided and in
some respects so full of risk; he abandoned a
position which was not without possibilities—which
had, indeed, some material advantages—and to
satisfy his convictions chose a course which must
at first sight have seemed a little indefinite.
Yet subsequent events have proved that he was
right in cutting himself free from an entanglement
which was as dangerous as it was irksome to an
artist of his spirit. There was no allowance made
in the South Kensington Curriculum for poetry or
Sentiment, the thinker was not encouraged, and
WATER-COLOUR STUDY FOR “SISTERS,:
BY W. LEE HANKEY