HUBERT VON HERKOMER (British /
1849-1914)
An important figure in Victorian art, Hubert von Herkomer was born in Waal in Bavaria. He emigrated to England around 1862 with his father, a wood engraver. At the South Kensignton Art School, he met his lifelong friend Luke Fildes; both artists were deeply influenced by Frederic Walker. As a young man with radical political views, Hubert von Herkomer provided illustrations for the journal The Graphic (including illustrations for Thomas Hardy) from 1870. The refusal of the editor of the Graphic to offer him a fulltime position spurred von Herkomer to concentrate on his painting. In 1874 he exhibited his seven-foot-long painting The Last Muster to huge acclaim; it was sold to a photographic firm for the astronomical sum of £1200 (this when the annual wage of an agricultural labourer would have been around £30). Von Herkomer, who was alive to social injustice, would have noted that disparity. His social realist paintings are now his most admired, but in his own day people preferred his portraits. Hubert von Herkomer founded his own art school and ran it between 1883 and 1904, training over 500 students; he was also a professor at the Slade from 1885 to 1896. He was knighted in 1907.
See also:
Selected prints by
HUBERT VON HERKOMER
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The Babes in the
Wood,
1880
Etching •SOLD |
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View all available prints by
HUBERT VON HERKOMER
