William Hull (artist)
Encyclopedia
William Hull was a well-known watercolour landscape and still-life painter, illustrator and etcher, who exhibited at the Royal Academy
in London
.
, the son of a small farmer who moved soon after his son's birth to Keysoe
, Bedfordshire, and then to the nearby village of Pertenhall
. There, in the village school, William received his early education; afterwards he went for three years to Ockbrook
, near Derby
, to be educated as a minister at the Moravian Settlement there, where he had a few lessons in drawing from two Germans named Petersen and Hassé. After spending a year at the settlement at Wellhouse, near Mirfield
in Yorkshire
, as student and assistant, he went in 1838 to the Moravian establishment at Grace Hill, near Ballymena
in Ireland
, where he made many sketches. He spent five weeks in London
in 1840, studying the works of art in the British Museum
.
Acknowledging that he did not have a vocation for the ministry, Hull gave up his position at Grace Hill and moved to Manchester
, where his father was a missionary. He became a clerk in the printing and lithographic works of Bradshaw and Blacklock
and studied at the school of design there for a short time. From 1841 to 1844 he travelled in France
, Germany
, and the Low Countries
as tutor to the two sons of a Mr Janvrin, a merchant of St Helier in Jersey
, and took every opportunity of continuing his study of art.
Hull returned to Manchester in 1844, and on 7 July 1847 married Mary Elizabeth Newling, the daughter of Joshua Newling, a draper. Three years later he was partially paralysed by a stroke which also left him deaf, and then, in 1861, his wife died while they were staying in Wales
. Childless and lame, Hull was regarded by his friends as a "somewhat lonely but genial-minded man".
From 1844, when he contributed two pictures to the exhibition at the Royal Manchester Institution
, Hull devoted himself entirely to painting and sketching. During his career he produced careful watercolours of objects of interest and rural beauty in almost every county in England. His works in black and white and sepia were highly regarded by his contemporaries for their skill, although John Ruskin
advised him to introduce more colour; later he also produced detailed fruit and flower paintings.
Prince Albert acquired a couple of Hull's watercolours on a visit to Manchester in 1857. Some of his best work was in black and white, and sepia, such as his views of Oxford
and Cambridge
, and illustrations to the volumes "Charles Dickens and Rochester" and "The childhood and youth of Charles Dickens" (both engraved by his friend Robert Langton, the author). Hull also drew some of the illustrations to J. P. Earwaker's "East Cheshire, Past and Present" (1877–81), and his drawings of the mill at Ambleside
and Wythburn church were reproduced in autotype
.
He etched several plates, some of which appeared as illustrations to books, and he contributed an article on taste to "Bradshaw's Magazine" in 1842–3. After his death, reproductions of his drawings were published, with extracts from his letters, in "The Portfolio" (art periodical) in 1886 and 1887. These notes expressed his delight in the landscape of the Lake District
, which he first saw in 1854, and which he described to his associates in the "Letherbrow Club", a private literary and artistic society in Manchester which he had joined in 1848. In 1870 he moved permanently to the Lake District. In "The Portfolio" of 1886 Thomas Letherbrow described his friend's affection for this dramatic landscape, which he linked to the artist's admiration for Wordsworth
.
Between 1858-77, Hull exhibited 8 works at the Royal Academy
and, from 1867–74, 3 paintings at the Suffolk Street gallery
in London. Despite his residence in the Lake District, Hull continued to contribute works to the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts
, and also took some part in its management; he exhibited there regularly and studied in its life class. He exhibited at the regular exhibitions of the Royal Manchester Institution
and at the black and white exhibitions held there from 1877 to 1880.
William Hull died at Rydal
, Westmorland (now in Cumbria
) on 15 March 1880, and was buried in the churchyard at Grasmere
.
His brother Edward Hull
(1823–1906) was also a painter of note.
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...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Life and work
Hull was born at Grafham in HuntingdonshireHuntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
, the son of a small farmer who moved soon after his son's birth to Keysoe
Keysoe
Keysoe is a village located in the Bedford Borough of Bedfordshire, England.Historically part of the Stodden hundred in Bedfordshire, part of Keysoe was originally located in Huntingdonshire. Today the village forms part of the Bolnhurst and Keysoe civil parish. is based in Keysoe...
, Bedfordshire, and then to the nearby village of Pertenhall
Pertenhall
Pertenhall is a small village and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, close to the borders of Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Its parish council is a . It has recently published its Parish Plan which is available on the website...
. There, in the village school, William received his early education; afterwards he went for three years to Ockbrook
Ockbrook
Ockbrook is an ancient village in Derbyshire, England. It is almost contiguous with the village of Borrowash, the two only separated by the A52. Ockbrook lies about east of Derby.-History:...
, near Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, to be educated as a minister at the Moravian Settlement there, where he had a few lessons in drawing from two Germans named Petersen and Hassé. After spending a year at the settlement at Wellhouse, near Mirfield
Mirfield
Mirfield is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury...
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, as student and assistant, he went in 1838 to the Moravian establishment at Grace Hill, near Ballymena
Ballymena
Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, where he made many sketches. He spent five weeks in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1840, studying the works of art in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
.
Acknowledging that he did not have a vocation for the ministry, Hull gave up his position at Grace Hill and moved to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, where his father was a missionary. He became a clerk in the printing and lithographic works of Bradshaw and Blacklock
George Bradshaw
George Bradshaw was an English cartographer, printer and publisher. He is best known for developing the most successful and longest published series of combined railway timetables.-Biography:...
and studied at the school of design there for a short time. From 1841 to 1844 he travelled in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
as tutor to the two sons of a Mr Janvrin, a merchant of St Helier in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, and took every opportunity of continuing his study of art.
Hull returned to Manchester in 1844, and on 7 July 1847 married Mary Elizabeth Newling, the daughter of Joshua Newling, a draper. Three years later he was partially paralysed by a stroke which also left him deaf, and then, in 1861, his wife died while they were staying in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Childless and lame, Hull was regarded by his friends as a "somewhat lonely but genial-minded man".
From 1844, when he contributed two pictures to the exhibition at the Royal Manchester Institution
Royal Manchester Institution
The Royal Manchester Institution was an English learned society founded on 1 October 1823 at a public meeting held in the Exchange Room by Manchester merchants, local artists and others keen to dispel the image of Manchester as a city lacking in culture and taste.The Institution was housed in a...
, Hull devoted himself entirely to painting and sketching. During his career he produced careful watercolours of objects of interest and rural beauty in almost every county in England. His works in black and white and sepia were highly regarded by his contemporaries for their skill, although John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
advised him to introduce more colour; later he also produced detailed fruit and flower paintings.
Prince Albert acquired a couple of Hull's watercolours on a visit to Manchester in 1857. Some of his best work was in black and white, and sepia, such as his views of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, and illustrations to the volumes "Charles Dickens and Rochester" and "The childhood and youth of Charles Dickens" (both engraved by his friend Robert Langton, the author). Hull also drew some of the illustrations to J. P. Earwaker's "East Cheshire, Past and Present" (1877–81), and his drawings of the mill at Ambleside
Ambleside
Ambleside is a town in Cumbria, in North West England.Historically within the county of Westmorland, it is situated at the head of Windermere, England's largest lake...
and Wythburn church were reproduced in autotype
Autotype
Autotype is a function in some computer applications or programs, typically those containing forms, which fills in a field once you have typed in the first few letters...
.
He etched several plates, some of which appeared as illustrations to books, and he contributed an article on taste to "Bradshaw's Magazine" in 1842–3. After his death, reproductions of his drawings were published, with extracts from his letters, in "The Portfolio" (art periodical) in 1886 and 1887. These notes expressed his delight in the landscape of the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, which he first saw in 1854, and which he described to his associates in the "Letherbrow Club", a private literary and artistic society in Manchester which he had joined in 1848. In 1870 he moved permanently to the Lake District. In "The Portfolio" of 1886 Thomas Letherbrow described his friend's affection for this dramatic landscape, which he linked to the artist's admiration for Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
.
Between 1858-77, Hull exhibited 8 works 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...
and, from 1867–74, 3 paintings at the Suffolk Street gallery
Royal Society of British Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.-History:...
in London. Despite his residence in the Lake District, Hull continued to contribute works to the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts
Manchester Academy of Fine Arts
The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts is a society established in 1859 for the purpose of organising Annual Open Exhibitions in Manchester City Art Gallery, formerly the Manchester Institution...
, and also took some part in its management; he exhibited there regularly and studied in its life class. He exhibited at the regular exhibitions of the Royal Manchester Institution
Royal Manchester Institution
The Royal Manchester Institution was an English learned society founded on 1 October 1823 at a public meeting held in the Exchange Room by Manchester merchants, local artists and others keen to dispel the image of Manchester as a city lacking in culture and taste.The Institution was housed in a...
and at the black and white exhibitions held there from 1877 to 1880.
William Hull died at Rydal
Rydal, Cumbria
Rydal is an English village located in the shire county of Cumbria, which is in North West England. Historically within Westmorland, the village of Rydal is situated on the A591 road....
, Westmorland (now in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
) on 15 March 1880, and was buried in the churchyard at Grasmere
Grasmere
Grasmere is a village, and popular tourist destination, in the centre of the English Lake District. It takes its name from the adjacent lake, and is associated with the Lake Poets...
.
His brother Edward Hull
Edward Hull (watercolorist)
Edward Hull , was a well-known illustrator and watercolour painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.Born in Keysoe in Bedfordshire, England, the second son of a farmer, he painted many watercolours but was mainly known as a book illustrator...
(1823–1906) was also a painter of note.