Hubert von Herkomer was a German born British painter, and also a pioneering film-director and composer.
Background
Herkomer was born on May 26, 1849 in Waal, Germany. His family was poor and his mother tried to supplement the earnings of his father by giving music lessons. Lorenz Herkomer, his father and a wood-carver of great ability, left Bavaria in 1851 with his wife and child for the United States, settling in Cleveland, Ohio. They soon returned to Europe and settled in Southampton in 1857, before moving to a house called Dyreham in Bushey in 1874.
Education
Herkomer lived for some time at Southampton and in the school of art there began his art training; but in 1866 he entered upon a more serious course of study at the South Kensington Schools.
Career
In 1869 Herkomer exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy. By his picture, "The Last Muster, " at the Academy in 1875, he definitely established his position as an artist of high distinction. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1879, and academician in 1890; an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in 1893, and a full member in 1894; and in 1885 he was appointed Slade professor at Oxford. He exhibited a very large number of memorable portraits, figure subjects and landscapes, in oil and water colour; he achieved marked success as a worker in enamel, as an etcher, mezzotint engraver and illustrative draughtsman; and he exercised wide influence upon art education by means of the Herkomer School (Incorporated), at Bushey, which he founded in 1883 and directed gratuitously until 1904, when he retired. It was then voluntarily wound up, and is now conducted privately. Two of his pictures, "Found" (1885) and "The Chapel of the Charterhouse" (1889), are in the National Gallery of British Art. In the year 1907 he received the honorary degree of D. C. L. at Oxford, and a knighthood was conferred upon him by the king in addition to the commandership of the Royal Victorian Order with which he was already decorated.
Membership
Member of Royal Academy of Arts, member of the Royal Watercolour Society, member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers