DOI Heft:
No.233 (August 1912)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The paintings of Arthur Hacker, R. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0197
Arthur Hacker, R.A.
The paintings of Arthur
HACKER, R.A. BY A. L.
B A L D R Y.
A certain disinclination to limit himself to any
one type of production has always been an agree-
able characteristic of Mr. Hacker’s practice as an
artist. His career has been one of wholesome
experiment, and has been marked by many changes
in his mode of dealing with artistic problems, but
it has been full, also, of eminently memorable
achievement, and it has been distinguished quite
definitely in all its phases. He has never allowed
the individuality of his work to become stereotyped
or to degenerate into a mannerism; and he has
never been tempted to give way to that habit of
repetition which is so often the consequence of
success.
Yet success came to Mr. Hacker earlier than it
does to most painters, and he had taken a definite
place at an age when most men are still struggling
for the first signs of recognition. He was born in
1858—his father was a line engraver—and in 1876
he commenced a period of four years’ study in the
Royal Academy schools, where he found himself
in competition with an unusually strong group of
fellow students, among them men who have since
established themselves in the front rank of modern
British art, like Mr. Stanhope Forbes, Mr. Solomon
J. Solomon, Mr. H. H. La Thangue, Mr. Melton
Fisher, Mr. Stirling Lee, and Sir E. A. Waterlow.
These surroundings, perhaps, stimulated him to
keener endeavour, for when he left the Academy
to enter Bonnat’s atelier in Paris he had to his
credit many successes as a prize-winner in the
schools, and he had commenced, at the age ot
nineteen, that career as an exhibitor at Burlington
House which has continued without a break to the
present day.
The two years he spent abroad had unquestion-
ably a momentous influence upon his later practice.
Not only did he profit by the teaching in Bonnat’s
studio and by the inspiring educational surround-
ings in which he found himself, but he took the
opportunity also to enlarge his experiences by
travel in other countries. In the winter following
The paintings of Arthur
HACKER, R.A. BY A. L.
B A L D R Y.
A certain disinclination to limit himself to any
one type of production has always been an agree-
able characteristic of Mr. Hacker’s practice as an
artist. His career has been one of wholesome
experiment, and has been marked by many changes
in his mode of dealing with artistic problems, but
it has been full, also, of eminently memorable
achievement, and it has been distinguished quite
definitely in all its phases. He has never allowed
the individuality of his work to become stereotyped
or to degenerate into a mannerism; and he has
never been tempted to give way to that habit of
repetition which is so often the consequence of
success.
Yet success came to Mr. Hacker earlier than it
does to most painters, and he had taken a definite
place at an age when most men are still struggling
for the first signs of recognition. He was born in
1858—his father was a line engraver—and in 1876
he commenced a period of four years’ study in the
Royal Academy schools, where he found himself
in competition with an unusually strong group of
fellow students, among them men who have since
established themselves in the front rank of modern
British art, like Mr. Stanhope Forbes, Mr. Solomon
J. Solomon, Mr. H. H. La Thangue, Mr. Melton
Fisher, Mr. Stirling Lee, and Sir E. A. Waterlow.
These surroundings, perhaps, stimulated him to
keener endeavour, for when he left the Academy
to enter Bonnat’s atelier in Paris he had to his
credit many successes as a prize-winner in the
schools, and he had commenced, at the age ot
nineteen, that career as an exhibitor at Burlington
House which has continued without a break to the
present day.
The two years he spent abroad had unquestion-
ably a momentous influence upon his later practice.
Not only did he profit by the teaching in Bonnat’s
studio and by the inspiring educational surround-
ings in which he found himself, but he took the
opportunity also to enlarge his experiences by
travel in other countries. In the winter following