DOI Artikel:
Baldry, Alfred Lys: The paintings of Arthur Hacker, R.A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43450#0190
Arthur Hacker, R.A.
Vce Victis, appeared in 1890; and it was followed
in 1891 by a religious subject, Christ and Mary
Magdalen, and in 1892 by another picture of the
same class, The Annunciation, which was bought
by the Chantrey Fund trustees. To 1893 belong
Circe and The Sleep of the Gods, imaginative pictures
treated with memorable power and with matured
technical skill.
He had by now established beyond the possi-
bility of dispute his claim to consideration, so his
election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, in
1894, came more or less as a matter of course—
certainly it was a thoroughly well-deserved honour
earned by the consistent merit of his achievement
during the previous fifteen or sixteen years.
During quite recent years he has launched out
in another direction, and has sought his inspiration
in pastoral life and in the strange effects of light
and atmosphere which are to be found in London
streets. In his pastorals, in paintings like The
Gloaming, The Cowshed, and Couch Burners, he
has realised with unusual sensitiveness certain
poetic aspects of rustic life, and has used them as
material for pictures which, without ignoring the
necessary facts of the subject chosen, give an
abstract suggestion of reality that avoids very
happily any hint of the commonplace. His
London effects are not less subtle in suggestion
and are not less shrewdly observed; they are
admirable impressions set down with just the right
touch of elusiveness and made convincing by their
freedom from tricks of handling. They are tone
and colour arrangements studied with unusual care
and with a sincere intention to secure certain
qualities of interpretation which will increase the
significance of his rendering of the selected subject.
These paintings of London scenes are entitled to
particular consideration in any summary of his
achievement, because they illustrate so well his
capacity for bringing out the more poetic aspects
of the material he is dealing with. The example
reproduced in colour—a night effect at Charing
Cross—is typical in its suggestion of the atmosphere
of London and in its use of the glitter and bustle
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST’S MOTHER
178
BY ARTHUR HACKER, R.A.
Vce Victis, appeared in 1890; and it was followed
in 1891 by a religious subject, Christ and Mary
Magdalen, and in 1892 by another picture of the
same class, The Annunciation, which was bought
by the Chantrey Fund trustees. To 1893 belong
Circe and The Sleep of the Gods, imaginative pictures
treated with memorable power and with matured
technical skill.
He had by now established beyond the possi-
bility of dispute his claim to consideration, so his
election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, in
1894, came more or less as a matter of course—
certainly it was a thoroughly well-deserved honour
earned by the consistent merit of his achievement
during the previous fifteen or sixteen years.
During quite recent years he has launched out
in another direction, and has sought his inspiration
in pastoral life and in the strange effects of light
and atmosphere which are to be found in London
streets. In his pastorals, in paintings like The
Gloaming, The Cowshed, and Couch Burners, he
has realised with unusual sensitiveness certain
poetic aspects of rustic life, and has used them as
material for pictures which, without ignoring the
necessary facts of the subject chosen, give an
abstract suggestion of reality that avoids very
happily any hint of the commonplace. His
London effects are not less subtle in suggestion
and are not less shrewdly observed; they are
admirable impressions set down with just the right
touch of elusiveness and made convincing by their
freedom from tricks of handling. They are tone
and colour arrangements studied with unusual care
and with a sincere intention to secure certain
qualities of interpretation which will increase the
significance of his rendering of the selected subject.
These paintings of London scenes are entitled to
particular consideration in any summary of his
achievement, because they illustrate so well his
capacity for bringing out the more poetic aspects
of the material he is dealing with. The example
reproduced in colour—a night effect at Charing
Cross—is typical in its suggestion of the atmosphere
of London and in its use of the glitter and bustle
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST’S MOTHER
178
BY ARTHUR HACKER, R.A.