DOI Heft:
No. 200 (November, 200)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of Edward John Gregory, R. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0116
Edward J. Gregory, R.A.
"SPOILS OF OPPORTUNITY" BY EDWARD J. GREGORY, R.A.
Opportunity. All these bear, as can be seen, the fifteen, should have found his way into the en-
plain stamp of his individuality, but they do not gineer's drawing-office of the Peninsular and Orien-
conform to any set and regular pattern—for which tal Company ; but at the end of four years he broke
fact we may be devoutly thankful. with this tradition and came to London to study
There is another fact for which we may be art instead of engineering,
thankful, that he was one of the most character- Of actual school training, however, he did not
istically British painters whom the nineteenth cen- have much at any time. Before he left Southamp-
tury produced. Foreign teaching did not in any ton he worked for a while at the local school of
way influence his development, for he never went art, and he assisted his boy friend Herkomer—now
abroad to study; he learned his art at home under Sir Hubert von Herkomer—in starting a life class
the inspiration of British traditions, and this, no in that town, and gained thereby some useful ex-
doubt, accounts to some extent for the particular perience. But his study in London was limited to
character of his accomplishment. He was born a short spell of work in the South Kensington
in England, at Southampton, on April 19th, 1850, School, so that he really owed more to self-educa-
and his boyhood was spent in his native place. tion than to the precepts of any teacher. His career
He came of an engineering family, for his father can be said to have begun in 1871, when he corn-
was a chief engineer in the Peninsular and Oriental menced an engagement, which lasted for several
Company's service, and his grandfather, who was years, as one of the staff of young artists who were
in the same service, went as engineer with Sir John drawing for the " Graphic "; but he soon succeeded
Franklin's expedition, and shared that famous ex- in gaining attention as a painter, by the works he
plorer's fate. It was only in accordance with the exhibited at the Dudley Gallery and in the galleries
family • tradition that young Gregory, at the age of of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, of
94
"SPOILS OF OPPORTUNITY" BY EDWARD J. GREGORY, R.A.
Opportunity. All these bear, as can be seen, the fifteen, should have found his way into the en-
plain stamp of his individuality, but they do not gineer's drawing-office of the Peninsular and Orien-
conform to any set and regular pattern—for which tal Company ; but at the end of four years he broke
fact we may be devoutly thankful. with this tradition and came to London to study
There is another fact for which we may be art instead of engineering,
thankful, that he was one of the most character- Of actual school training, however, he did not
istically British painters whom the nineteenth cen- have much at any time. Before he left Southamp-
tury produced. Foreign teaching did not in any ton he worked for a while at the local school of
way influence his development, for he never went art, and he assisted his boy friend Herkomer—now
abroad to study; he learned his art at home under Sir Hubert von Herkomer—in starting a life class
the inspiration of British traditions, and this, no in that town, and gained thereby some useful ex-
doubt, accounts to some extent for the particular perience. But his study in London was limited to
character of his accomplishment. He was born a short spell of work in the South Kensington
in England, at Southampton, on April 19th, 1850, School, so that he really owed more to self-educa-
and his boyhood was spent in his native place. tion than to the precepts of any teacher. His career
He came of an engineering family, for his father can be said to have begun in 1871, when he corn-
was a chief engineer in the Peninsular and Oriental menced an engagement, which lasted for several
Company's service, and his grandfather, who was years, as one of the staff of young artists who were
in the same service, went as engineer with Sir John drawing for the " Graphic "; but he soon succeeded
Franklin's expedition, and shared that famous ex- in gaining attention as a painter, by the works he
plorer's fate. It was only in accordance with the exhibited at the Dudley Gallery and in the galleries
family • tradition that young Gregory, at the age of of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, of
94