Thomas Hearne (artist)
Encyclopedia
Thomas Hearne was an English landscape painter, engraver and illustrator. Hearne's watercolours were typified by applying a wash
over a clear outline in fine brush, pen or pencil. His techniques were studied by younger artists such as Thomas Girtin
and J. M. W. Turner
.
. When aged five, his father, William, died and Thomas moved with his mother, Prudence, to Brinkworth, Wiltshire
. One of his biographers, Simon Fenwick, suggests that nearby Malmesbury Abbey
proved an inspiration to Hearne's later interest in Gothic architecture. As a teenager he was apprenticed to his uncle who worked as a pastry cook in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
. Next door was a print shop; Miller, the engraver, no doubt facilitated his move to the profession of artist.
In its early years, the Royal Society of Arts
offered prizes — which it called "premiums" — for people who could successfully achieve one of a number of published challenges. In 1763 Hearne was awarded a guinea
premium for his still life
. The next year he received 8 guineas for an equestrian piece. By 1765 he had become apprenticed to the engraver William Woollett
, who came to consider him the finest landscape engraver of his day and with whom he stayed for six years.
Early in 1771 Hearne spent six weeks with Woollett, young George Beaumont in Henstead, Suffolk at the home of the latters tutor at Eton
, Revd Charles Davy. For Beaumont it proved the inspiration for his future profession as a landscape painter himself.
it was the custom for topographical watercolor artists to travel abroad with the Governors of Colonies. In 1771 Hearne travelled to the Leeward Islands
with the newly-appointed Governor-General, Sir Ralph Payne
. He remained there for three-and-a-half years, making drawings of the characteristic features of the islands. This work also employed him for two years after his return to London in 1775, and turned the direction of his art from engraving to watercolour painting. Hearne's painting of Payne himself is currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London.
In 1777, in conjunction with engraver William Byrne
(1743–1805), Hearne began work recording and illustrating the Country's historic monuments, The Antiquities of Great Britain. Hearne produced drawings specifically for the project. Byrne then produced 10" x 7" engravings and descriptions were added in French and English. The works were issued in series for individual sale from 1778, and subsequently published in two volumes. By 1806 an individual print sold for 15s compared to a complete set of the proof impressions for 26l 5s (2011: £).Many of the drawings were exhibited at a gallery in Spring Gardens
, London. During the extensive tour of Britain which the work necessitated, Hearne studied nature with care, investing his topographical drawings with effects of light and atmosphere seldom attempted by previous draughtsmen in watercolour. He may thus be said to have done much to revive attention to Gothic architecture
, and to have been one of the founders of the English school of watercolours.
Byrne further worked with Hearne, using the artists designs for Rural Sports from 1780.
Richard Payne Knight
, enthusiast of the ‘picturesque
’ style, commissioned Hearne to produce several drawings of the grounds of his home, Downton Castle
in Herefordshire
.
Hearne's art influenced Thomas Girtin
and J M W Turner, both of whom copied his drawings at the houses of Dr. Thomas Monro
and John Henderson Snr., the well-known patrons of the arts at the time. From 1781 to 1802 Hearne exhibited drawings of landscape and antiquarian remains at the Royal Academy
, London. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
.
In 1812 Henry Monro
painted Hearne in pastel
. The National Portrait Gallery
purchased this portrait in 1912. Hearne died in Macclesfield Street, Soho
, London on 13 April 1817, and was buried at Bushey
, Hertfordshire.
acquired over 3000 artworks from Oppé collection. Works by Hearne included Linlithgow Castle; Hills, Ships and River; Landscape with Road and Castle; and The Moat in Kent, the Seat of Lord Romney.
In February 1966 The Tower of London by Hearne sold for 320 guineas (2011: £). By 1994 a Hearne Leeward Islands panoramic would expect to reach £10,000. In June 2006 Hearne's Rowing On The River Wear Before Lumley Castle was sold at Sothebys for £19,200.
Thomas Hearne's paintings are now owned by many museums and Public Art Galleries across England and America.
Wash (painting)
thumb|Example of a wash drawing by [[R. G. Skerrett]].A wash is a painting technique in which a paint brush that is very wet with solvent and holds a small paint load is applied to a wet or dry support such as paper or primed or raw canvas. The result is a smooth and uniform area that ideally lacks...
over a clear outline in fine brush, pen or pencil. His techniques were studied by younger artists such as Thomas Girtin
Thomas Girtin
Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.-Biography:...
and J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
.
Early Life
Thomas Hearne was born at Marshfield, GloucestershireMarshfield, Gloucestershire
Marshfield is a village in the local government area of South Gloucestershire, England, on the borders of the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset.- Location :...
. When aged five, his father, William, died and Thomas moved with his mother, Prudence, to Brinkworth, Wiltshire
Brinkworth, Wiltshire
Brinkworth, in northern Wiltshire, is the longest village in Britain, at over 6 miles...
. One of his biographers, Simon Fenwick, suggests that nearby Malmesbury Abbey
Malmesbury Abbey
Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. In 941 AD, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was...
proved an inspiration to Hearne's later interest in Gothic architecture. As a teenager he was apprenticed to his uncle who worked as a pastry cook in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. Next door was a print shop; Miller, the engraver, no doubt facilitated his move to the profession of artist.
In its early years, the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
offered prizes — which it called "premiums" — for people who could successfully achieve one of a number of published challenges. In 1763 Hearne was awarded a guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
premium for his still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
. The next year he received 8 guineas for an equestrian piece. By 1765 he had become apprenticed to the engraver William Woollett
William Woollett
William Woollett was an English engraver. He was born at Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands....
, who came to consider him the finest landscape engraver of his day and with whom he stayed for six years.
Early in 1771 Hearne spent six weeks with Woollett, young George Beaumont in Henstead, Suffolk at the home of the latters tutor at Eton
Eton
Eton commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.Eton may also refer to:-Places:*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England*Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States...
, Revd Charles Davy. For Beaumont it proved the inspiration for his future profession as a landscape painter himself.
Career
Before the invention of photographyPhotography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
it was the custom for topographical watercolor artists to travel abroad with the Governors of Colonies. In 1771 Hearne travelled to the Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...
with the newly-appointed Governor-General, Sir Ralph Payne
Ralph Payne, 1st Baron Lavington
Ralph Payne, 1st Baron Lavington KB PC was a British politician and Governor of the Leeward Islands.-Early life and education:...
. He remained there for three-and-a-half years, making drawings of the characteristic features of the islands. This work also employed him for two years after his return to London in 1775, and turned the direction of his art from engraving to watercolour painting. Hearne's painting of Payne himself is currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London.
In 1777, in conjunction with engraver William Byrne
William Byrne (engraver)
William Byrne, an engraver, was born in London in 1743. He is the father of John Byrne. After studying some time under his uncle, an artist little known, he went to Paris, where he became a pupil of Aliamet, and afterwards of Wille. He died in London in 1805, and was buried in Old St. Pancras...
(1743–1805), Hearne began work recording and illustrating the Country's historic monuments, The Antiquities of Great Britain. Hearne produced drawings specifically for the project. Byrne then produced 10" x 7" engravings and descriptions were added in French and English. The works were issued in series for individual sale from 1778, and subsequently published in two volumes. By 1806 an individual print sold for 15s compared to a complete set of the proof impressions for 26l 5s (2011: £).Many of the drawings were exhibited at a gallery in Spring Gardens
Spring Gardens
Spring Gardens is a street in London, England, crossing The Mall between Admiralty Arch and Trafalgar Square.It was named after the gardens which were previously on the site, which featured a trick fountain...
, London. During the extensive tour of Britain which the work necessitated, Hearne studied nature with care, investing his topographical drawings with effects of light and atmosphere seldom attempted by previous draughtsmen in watercolour. He may thus be said to have done much to revive attention to Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
, and to have been one of the founders of the English school of watercolours.
Byrne further worked with Hearne, using the artists designs for Rural Sports from 1780.
Richard Payne Knight
Richard Payne Knight
Richard Payne Knight was a classical scholar and connoisseur best known for his theories of picturesque beauty and for his interest in ancient phallic imagery.-Biography:...
, enthusiast of the ‘picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
’ style, commissioned Hearne to produce several drawings of the grounds of his home, Downton Castle
Downton Castle
Downton Castle is an 18th-century country house at Downton on the Rock, Herefordshire, England, about five miles west of Ludlow, Shropshire. It is a Grade I listed building....
in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
.
Hearne's art influenced Thomas Girtin
Thomas Girtin
Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.-Biography:...
and J M W Turner, both of whom copied his drawings at the houses of Dr. Thomas Monro
Thomas Monro
Thomas Monro was a British art collector and patron as well as Physician to George III. He was Principal Physician of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London but resigned in June 1816 as a result of scandal when he was accused of ‘wanting in humanity’ towards his patients.Monro was best known as a...
and John Henderson Snr., the well-known patrons of the arts at the time. From 1781 to 1802 Hearne exhibited drawings of landscape and antiquarian remains at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, London. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
.
In 1812 Henry Monro
Henry Monro
Henry Monro was a British painter, associated with the Monro 'Academy' founded by his father Thomas Monro .- Biography :...
painted Hearne in pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
. The National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery can refer to:*National Portrait Gallery in Canberra*Portrait Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario*National Portrait Gallery , with satellite galleries in Denbighshire, Derbyshire and Somerset...
purchased this portrait in 1912. Hearne died in Macclesfield Street, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London on 13 April 1817, and was buried at Bushey
Bushey
Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. Bushey Heath is situated to the south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow.-History:...
, Hertfordshire.
Posthumous
From the 1900s, art historian and collector Adolph Oppé, took an interest in 18th & early 19thC British watercolours, a subject which had been little studied before. In 1996 the Tate GalleryTate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
acquired over 3000 artworks from Oppé collection. Works by Hearne included Linlithgow Castle; Hills, Ships and River; Landscape with Road and Castle; and The Moat in Kent, the Seat of Lord Romney.
In February 1966 The Tower of London by Hearne sold for 320 guineas (2011: £). By 1994 a Hearne Leeward Islands panoramic would expect to reach £10,000. In June 2006 Hearne's Rowing On The River Wear Before Lumley Castle was sold at Sothebys for £19,200.
Thomas Hearne's paintings are now owned by many museums and Public Art Galleries across England and America.
Further reading
- Hearne, Thomas: Antiquities of Great-Britain (London: Printed by J. Phillips and published by T. Hearne and W. Byrne, 1786–1807).
- Graves, Algernon. Dictionary of Artists (London, G. Bell and sons, 1907).
- Morris, David. Thomas Hearne and his landscape (London: Reaktion Books, 1989).
- Hargraves, Matthew. Great British Watercolors: From the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Press, 2007) p. 38 ff.
External links
- Thomas Hearne online (ArtCyclopedia)
- Paintings by Thomas Hearne (Tate online)
- Etchings of works by Hearne (National Maritime MuseumNational Maritime MuseumThe National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
) - Works by Hearne (Victoria Art GalleryVictoria Art GalleryThe Victoria Art Gallery is free public art museum in Bath, Somerset, England.The building was designed in 1897 by John McKean Brydon, and has been designated as a Grade II listed building. The exterior of the building includes a statue of Queen Victoria, by A. C. Lucchesi, and friezes of...
- Portrait engraving of Thomas Hearne (V&A)
- Man Seated On A Fallen Branch On A Woodland Path (Pencil drawing - Art Renewal Center)
- The Monnow Bridge (swanseaheritage.net)