Henry Sass (24 April 1788 – 1844) was an English artist and teacher of painting, who founded an important art school, Sass's Academy (later "Cary's Academy"), in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, to provide training for those seeking to enter the
Royal Academy. Many distinguished British painters received their early training here.
Such was Sass's commitment to art education that
Sir David Wilkie said he could have "taught a stone to draw".
[London higher: the establishment of higher education in London](_blank)
Roderick Floud, p.282, 1998, accessed 15 August 2010
Life and work
Sass was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. His father, who was also an artist, belonged to an old
Courland family from what is now
Latvia. Sass's father and mother settled in London after their marriage and his elder half-brother
Richard Sass became a landscape painter and art tutor to members of the royal family.
Sass became a student at the
Royal Academy and practised his art by copying paintings held at the
British Institution. His early work which was exhibited in 1807 and 1808 at the Royal Academy included, "The Descent of Ulysses into Hell" which Sass also executed as an etching. However his later work was portraiture. In 1815 he married Mary Robinson, whose family was related to the Earls of Ripon. In the same year he travelled to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, returning two years later.
However, despite publishing a book about his Italian trip he was not able to make a living from his painting.
Sass decided to open the first school of drawing for artists who were intending to study at the Royal Academy' school. Sass established it in a house at No. 6
Charlotte Street
Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the '' ...
, at the corner with
Streatham Street
Streatham Street is a street in the London district of Bloomsbury, running between New Oxford Street and Great Russell Street
Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It ...
, in
Bloomsbury, London. Sass's pupils included Sir
John Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
P.R.A.,
Charles West Cope
Charles West Cope (28 July 1811, in Leeds – 21 August 1890, in Bournemouth) was an English, Victorian era painter of genre and history scenes, and an etcher. He was responsible for painting several frescos in the House of Lords in Lond ...
K.A.,
William Powell Frith
William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Sleep ...
R.A.,
William Edward Frost R.A. Sir
Thomas Lawrence
Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at ...
the President of the Royal Academy was amongst the school's supporters. Such was Sass's commitment to art education that
Sir David Wilie said he could have taught a "stone to draw".
Sass's Academy is caricatured in the novel "
The Newcomes
''The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family'' is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in 1854 and 1855.
Publication
''The Newcomes'' was published serially over about two years, as Thackeray himself says in one of t ...
" by
Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and th ...
, who was once a student at the school.
The real academy, however, is only used as a basis for the fictional art school and Thackeray does not refer to Sass or his school in particular.
Sass was now well off and he and Mary entertained the intelligentsia of the day. Among his friends were
Sir Edwin Landseer
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...
,
William Etty
William Etty (10 March 1787 – 13 November 1849) was an English artist best known for his history paintings containing nude (art), nude figures. He was the first significant British painter of nudes and still lifes. Born in York, h ...
, and particularly
J. M. W. Turner. Two years before his death Sass passed the directorship of the school to
Francis Stephen Cary due to his failing mental health.
Sass died in 1844, having had nine children including an eldest surviving son, Henry William Sass who was an architect and Edwin Etty Sass who entered the medical profession.
Artistic Recognition
A bust of Sass by
William Grinsell Nicholl
William Grinsell Nicholl (London 1796–1871) was a British 19th-century architectural and monumental sculptor.
Life
He was born in Marylebone, London in 1796. In 1822 he attended the Royal Academy Schools.
He exhibited in the Royal ...
was commissioned in 1820.
[dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis]
References
Further reading
*William Powell Frith.
My autobiography and reminiscences, volume 1' (New York: Harper & brothers, 1888), chapter 4 - "The School of Art".
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sass, Henry
19th-century English painters
English male painters
English portrait painters
British art teachers
English travel writers
1788 births
1844 deaths
English male non-fiction writers
19th-century English male artists