Henry Matthew Brock (11 July 187521 July 1960) was a British

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and landscape painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He was one of four artist brothers, all of them illustrators, who worked together in their family studio in Cambridge.

Biography

Born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, H. M. Brock was one of four sons of Edmund Brock (1841–1921), a specialist reader in

oriental languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...

for the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, and his wife Mary Ann Louise (1836–1901) (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Peagram). H. M. Brock was the younger brother of the better-known artist

Charles Edmund Brock Charles Edmund Brock (5 February 1870 – 28 February 1938) was a widely published English painter, line artist and book illustrator, who signed most of his work C. E. Brock. He was the eldest of four artist brothers, including Henry Matthew ...

, with whom he shared a studio from 1894. H. M. Brock studied at the

Cambridge School of Art Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...

. Like his brother, he contributed to ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' magazine. While Charles Edward Brock painted in oils and was elected a member of the British Institution, H. M. Brock worked in advertising as well as in book illustration. For example, he illustrated

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' ''

Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...

'', and produced four colour plates for a 1935 edition of ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''. In addition, Brock was one of two artists (the other being Joseph Simpson) who contributed illustrations to

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's 1911

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

story, "

The Adventure of the Red Circle "The Adventure of the Red Circle" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It is included in the anthology '' His Last Bow''. Synopsis Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with some questions ...

".The Adventure of the Red Circle at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.
/ref> H.M. Brock provided illustrations for Susan Coolidge's ''What Katy Did at Home and at School'' (Seely and Co., 1911). He illustrated several books for T. N. Foulis. Brock was a frequent exhibitor. Most of Brock's illustrations were for classic Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

fiction. He also did a great deal of work for the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The ...

for whom he produced posters and other advertising materials. During his artistic career, H. M. Brock regularly exhibited his drawings and watercolours at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

and the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He became a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1907, and joined the newly formed

Society of Graphic Art The Society of Graphic Art for Pornographique (renamed Society of Graphic Fine Art in 1984) is a British arts organisation established in 1999. History The Society of Graphic Art (SGA) was founded in 1999 by Frank Lewis Emanuel, whose idea it wa ...

in 1921. From the 1930s on he worked in comics, drawing "The Mystery of Study 13" for ''

Sparkler A sparkler is a type of hand-held firework that burns slowly while emitting bright, intense colored flames, sparks, and other effects. Sparklers are particularly popular with children. In the United Kingdom, a sparkler is often used by chil ...

'' (1937), "Breed of the Brudenells" for ''

Knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

'' (1949), and an adaptation of ''

Lorna Doone ''Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor'' is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly ar ...

'' for ''

Princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

'' (1960). On 7 September 1912 at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

Brock married his cousin, Doris Joan Pegram, the daughter of the sculptor Henry Alfred Pegram, brother of the illustrator Fred Pegram. H. M. Brock died in the Evelyn Nursing Home in

in July 1960 aged 85. In his will he left £7,961 13s. 5d. to his widow, Doris Joan Brock. The

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

has an H. M. Brock Collection, which is made up of some 2000 books in which Brock's work was published, many

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...

volumes and parts, ephemera such as cigarette cards, and pictures, including over 70 original drawings.The H. M. Brock Collection
at the

Gallery

Image:brock-sorcerer-1919.jpg, H. M. Brock's 1919 poster for ''

The Sorcerer ''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas story, ''An Elixir of Lo ...

'' File:H._M._Brock_-_Gilbert_and_Sullivan_-_D'Oyly_Carte_Opera_Company_Ruddigore_revival_1921.jpg, Illustration of the ghost scene from ''

Ruddigore ''Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse'', originally called ''Ruddygore'', is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written tog ...

'' (1921)

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Brock's Children's IllustrationsList of books illustrated by Henry Matthew Brock
for the

story ''

'', Strand Magazine, March – April 1911.
Brock's illustrations
for ''

Persuasion Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for Social influence, influence. Persuasion can influence a person's Belief, beliefs, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, Intention, intentions, Motivation, motivations, or Behavior, behaviours. ...

'' by

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

Brock's illustrations from British Library Flickr account

''Essays of Leigh Hunt''
(1891) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brock, H. M. 1875 births 1960 deaths English landscape painters English illustrators 19th-century illustrators of fairy tales 20th-century illustrators of fairy tales British comics artists Artists from Cambridge Alumni of Anglia Ruskin University 20th-century English painters English male painters British illustrators Sibling artists 20th-century English male artists

Biography

Gallery

Notes

References

Further reading

External links