DOI Heft:
No. 290 (May 1917)
DOI Artikel:Lees, George Frederic William: The art of George Harcourt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24576#0174
The Art of George Harcourt
made so strong an appeal to my imagination
as to overlay all others. Of the artists of
modern Bushey, the one who has continued to
stir my memories of the place the most is
undoubtedly Mr. George Harcourt. He, it has
always seemed to me, has comprehended its
spirit the best and interpreted its beauties in
the most convincing manner, though his land-
scape work may not be so well known as his
subject pictures and portraits, with which the
present notes are primarily concerned.
Hubert Herkomer established in Bushey a
school of art of a unique character, where
sound instruction in drawing and painting from
life could be obtained under the guidance of
a painter of assured reputation. The modern
spirit in art instruction, as opposed to the old
methods which led to mere imitation of the
master’s manner, may be said to have reigned
there. This nurturing of the latent talent of
each individual student bore the happiest
result in the case of the subject of our article.
No one could say, when his three years’ course
was over and he began to exhibit, that his
work labelled him as a Herkomer pupil. In-
spired by a deep love of nature, gifted with a
keen eye for the beauties of line and colour,
capable of combining subject and technique in
such a manner that they form a harmonious
whole, he worked out his artistic salvation in
a way which at once began to attract attention.
The first occasion on which Mr. Harcourt’s
work indicated to connoisseurs and painters
alike that a new artist of great promise had
made his appearance in the artistic world was
at an exhibition of the pictures of Hubert
Herkomer and of his pupils at the Fine Art
Society's rooms in Bond Street. His contribu-
tions to this memorable collection were two:
one a large landscape entitled Evening Time,
painted just above Merry Hill, Bushey, exem-
plifying the painter’s love of subtle effects of
light and colour; the other a subject picture
called The Heir, bringing to light his inherent
love of the dramatic.
In 1893 Mr. Harcourt made his first appear-
“THE painter’s FAMILY”
162
OIL PAINTING BY GEORGE HARCOURT
made so strong an appeal to my imagination
as to overlay all others. Of the artists of
modern Bushey, the one who has continued to
stir my memories of the place the most is
undoubtedly Mr. George Harcourt. He, it has
always seemed to me, has comprehended its
spirit the best and interpreted its beauties in
the most convincing manner, though his land-
scape work may not be so well known as his
subject pictures and portraits, with which the
present notes are primarily concerned.
Hubert Herkomer established in Bushey a
school of art of a unique character, where
sound instruction in drawing and painting from
life could be obtained under the guidance of
a painter of assured reputation. The modern
spirit in art instruction, as opposed to the old
methods which led to mere imitation of the
master’s manner, may be said to have reigned
there. This nurturing of the latent talent of
each individual student bore the happiest
result in the case of the subject of our article.
No one could say, when his three years’ course
was over and he began to exhibit, that his
work labelled him as a Herkomer pupil. In-
spired by a deep love of nature, gifted with a
keen eye for the beauties of line and colour,
capable of combining subject and technique in
such a manner that they form a harmonious
whole, he worked out his artistic salvation in
a way which at once began to attract attention.
The first occasion on which Mr. Harcourt’s
work indicated to connoisseurs and painters
alike that a new artist of great promise had
made his appearance in the artistic world was
at an exhibition of the pictures of Hubert
Herkomer and of his pupils at the Fine Art
Society's rooms in Bond Street. His contribu-
tions to this memorable collection were two:
one a large landscape entitled Evening Time,
painted just above Merry Hill, Bushey, exem-
plifying the painter’s love of subtle effects of
light and colour; the other a subject picture
called The Heir, bringing to light his inherent
love of the dramatic.
In 1893 Mr. Harcourt made his first appear-
“THE painter’s FAMILY”
162
OIL PAINTING BY GEORGE HARCOURT