Henry Tonks
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Henry Tonks,
FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal C ...
(9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a
caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...
. He became an influential
art teacher Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of what ...
. He was one of the first British artists to be influenced by the French
Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
; he exhibited with the
New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...
, and was an associate of many of the more progressive artists of late Victorian Britain, including
James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...
,
Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
,
John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
and
George Clausen Sir George Clausen (18 April 1852 – 22 November 1944) was a British artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, dry point and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927. Biography George Clausen was born at 8 William S ...
.


Early life and career as a surgeon

Tonks was born in
Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
. His family owned a brass foundry in Birmingham. He was educated briefly at
Bloxham School Bloxham School, also called All Saints' School, is an Independent school (UK), independent co-educational day and boarding school of the public school (UK), British public school tradition, located in the village of Bloxham, three miles (5  ...
, followed by
Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...
in Bristol, and then studied medicine at the
Royal Sussex County Hospital The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. Together with the Princess Royal Hospital, it is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The services provided at the hospital inc ...
in Brighton (1882–85) and the
London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and spe ...
in Whitechapel (1885–88). He became a house surgeon at the London Hospital in 1886, under Sir Frederick Treves. He was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal C ...
in 1888 and moved to the
Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...
in London. He taught
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
at the London Hospital medical school from 1892.


Artist

From 1888 he studied in the evenings at
Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman described ...
, under Frederick Brown. He exhibited paintings with the
New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...
from 1891 and became a member of the Club in 1895. Brown became
Slade Professor of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collecto ...
at
University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...
, London, in 1892, and Tonks started to teach at the
Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
. Tonks became "the most renowned and formidable teacher of his generation".Tonks, Henry
''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Ed. Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Pupils of Tonks at the Slade included
Winifred Knights Winifred Margaret Knights (5 June 1899–7 February 1947) was a British painter. Amongst her most notable works are ''The Marriage at Cana'' produced for the British School at Rome, which is now in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa a ...
,
David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry ...
,
Ethel Carrick Ethel Carrick, later Ethel Carrick Fox (7 February 1872 – 17 June 1952) was an English Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Much of her career was spent in France and in Australia, where she was associated with the movement known as ...
,
William Lionel Clause William Lionel Clause (7 May 1887 – 9 September 1946) was an English artist. Early life Born in Middleton, Lancashire, the son of William H. Clause and his wife Minna, Clause was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and at the Slade School ...
,
Mukul Dey Mukul Chandra Dey ( bn, মুকুলচন্দ্র দে) (23 July 1895 – 1 March 1989) was one of five children of Purnashashi Devi and Kula Chandra Dey.''The International Who's Who 1943–44''. George Allen & Unwin, 8th edition, Lo ...
,
Ian Fairweather Ian Fairweather (29 September 189120 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined western and Asian influences in his work. Life Ian Fairweather was born in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland in ...
, Mark Gertler,
Harold Gilman Harold John Wilde Gilman (11 February 187612 February 1919) was a British painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group. Early life and studies Harold John Wilde Gilman was the second son and ...
, Spencer Gore,
Katie Edith Gliddon Katie Edith Gliddon (6 May 1883 – 1 September 1967) was a British watercolour artist and militant suffragette. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) for whom she campaigned for which she was imprisoned in HM Pri ...
,
Edna Clarke Hall Edna Clarke Hall (née Waugh; 29 June 1879 – 16 November 1979) was a watercolour artist, etcher, lithographer and draughtsman who is mainly known for her many illustrations to ''Wuthering Heights'' by Emily Brontë. Early life and education ...
,
Fairlie Harmar Fairlie Harmar, Viscountess Harberton (1876–1945) was an English painter. She was born in Weymouth, Dorset, and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art.Jon Whiteley, Colin Harrison, Catherine Whistler, Colin Harrison, Catherine Casley (Editor ...
,
Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...
,
Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although sh ...
,
Percy Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST (magazine), BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels ...
, Hyam Myer, William E. C. Morgan,
William Orpen Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in ...
, William Roberts,
Isaac Rosenberg Isaac Rosenberg (25 November 1890 – 1 April 1918) was an English poet and artist. His ''Poems from the Trenches'' are recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War. Early life Isaac Rosenberg was born ...
,Lynda Morris,
Tonks, Henry (1862–1937)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 23 August 2007
Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small ...
, and
Rex Whistler Reginald John "Rex" Whistler (24 June 190518 July 1944) was a British artist, who painted murals and society portraits, and designed theatrical costumes. He was killed in action in Normandy in World War II. Whistler was the brother of poet and ...
. His sarcasm there drove
F. M. Mayor Flora Macdonald Mayor (20 October 1872, Kingston Hill, Surrey – 28 January 1932, Hampstead, London), was an English novelist and short story writer, who published under the name F. M. Mayor. Life and work Flora MacDonald Mayor was born on 20 O ...
's sister Alice to leave before completing her training. His student Paul Nash recalled Tonks's withering manner:
Tonks cared nothing for other authorities and he disliked self-satisfied young men ... His surgical eye raked my immature designs. With hooded stare and sardonic mouth, he hung in the air above me, like a tall question mark, moreover ... of a derisive, rather than an inquisitive order. In cold discouraging tones he welcomed me to the Slade. It was evident he considered that neither the Slade, nor I, was likely to derive much benefit.
From 1910 until his death, he lived at 1, The Vale, Chelsea, where he also had his studio.


First World War

Tonks resumed his medical career in 1914, first at a prisoner of war camp in Dorchester, and then at Hill Hall in Essex. He made pastel drawings of
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
and his wife, who were refugees. He served as a
medical orderly In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ro ...
at a British Red Cross hospital near the
Marne Marne can refer to: Places France *Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine *Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river * La Marne, a commune in western France *Marne, a legislative constituency (France) Nethe ...
in France in 1915, and joined an ambulance unit in Italy. He became a lieutenant in the
Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
in 1916, and worked for
Harold Gillies Sir Harold Delf Gillies (17 June 1882 – 10 September 1960) was a New Zealand otolaryngologist and father of modern plastic surgery. Early life Gillies was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, the son of Member of Parliament in Otago, Robert Gillies ...
producing pastel drawings recording facial injury cases at the
Cambridge Military Hospital Cambridge Military Hospital was a hospital completed in 1879 in Aldershot Garrison, Hampshire, England which served the various British Army camps there. During World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviate ...
in Aldershot and the
Queen's Hospital, Sidcup Frognal House is a Jacobean mansion in London, England, standing on the border of Sidcup in the London Borough of Bexley, and Chislehurst, in the London Borough of Bromley. It was built in the early 16th century. History A Jacobean mans ...
– a contribution recognised in the exhibitions ''Faces of Battle'' at the
National Army Museum The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the "Chelsea Pensioners". The museum is a non-departmental public body. ...
in 2008 and ''Henry Tonks: Art and Surgery'' at the Strang Print Room of University College London in 2002. There is also information on him at Will Self's "Kafka's Wound". Tonks became an official war artist in 1918, and he accompanied
John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
on tours of the Western Front. In August 1918, they both witnessed a field of wounded men near Le Bac du Sud,
Doullens Doullens (; pcd, Dourlin; former nl, Dorland) is a commune in the Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France. Its inhabitants are called ''Doullennais'' and ''Doullennaises''. Geography Doullens is situated on the N25 road, in the northern ...
, which became the basis for Sargent's vast canvas, '' Gassed''. Tonks went to
Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...
in Russia in 1919 as a war artist with a British expeditionary force.


Later life

He succeeded Frederick Brown as Slade Professor of Fine Art from 1918 to 1930, although he initially turned down the appointment in favour of
Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
, only taking it up when Sickert declined the position. Further post-war students included Thomas Monnington,
William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of coun ...
, Helen Lessore and
Philip Evergood Philip Howard Francis Dixon Evergood (born Howard Blashki; 1901–1973) was an American painter, etcher, lithographer, sculptor, illustrator and writer. He was particularly active during the Depression and World War II era. Life Philip Evergoo ...
. Lessore, who founded the
Beaux Arts Gallery Beaux Arts Gallery was a gallery at 1 Bruton Place, London, England. It was known as a preeminent center for promoting avant-garde art until its closure in 1965. Founded and operated by portrait sculptor Frederick Lessore in 1923, the gallery wa ...
with her husband Frederick Lessore in 1923, described him as "a towering, dominating figure, about 6ft. 4in. tall, lean and ascetic looking, with large ears, hooded eyes, a nose dropping vertically from the bridge like an eagle's beak and quivering camel-like mouth".Lynda Morris, 'Tonks, Henry (1862–1937)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 9 April 2013
/ref> He retired in 1930, and declined the offer of a knighthood. An exhibition of his work was held in London at the
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
in 1936, only the second retrospective at the Tate for a living British artist. He died at his home in Chelsea.


Gallery

File:Henry Tonks - The Hat Shop - 1951P105 - Birmingham Museums Trust.jpg, Henry Tonks. ''The Hat Shop'' (1892), oil on canvas File:Portrait of the Artist.jpg, Henry Tonks, self-portrait (1909) File:Tonks, Henry - Saline Infusion- An incident in the British Red Cross Hospital, Arc-en-Barrois, 1915 - Google Art Project.jpg, Henry Tonks. ''Saline Infusion: An incident in the British Red Cross Hospital, Arc-en-Barrois, 1915'' (1915) File: Tonks, Henry - An Advanced Dressing Station in France, 1918 - Google Art Project.jpg, Henry Tonks. ''An Advanced Dressing Station'' (1918), oil on canvas File:Tonks - John Singer Sargent.jpg, Henry Tonks. ''John Singer Sargent painting'' (c. 1918) File:Standing figure.jpg, Henry Tonks. '' Standing figure'' (c.1918) File:Four founders of UCL.JPG, Henry Tonks. ''The Four Founders of UCL'' (c. 1923) File:Sodales Mr Steer and Mr Sickert.jpg, Henry Tonks. ''Sodales: Mr Steer and Mr Sickert'' (1930)


Notes and references


Further reading

* E. Chambers, 'Fragmented Identities: Reading Subjectivity in Henry Tonks' Surgical Portraits,' ''Art History'', 32,3 (2009), 578–607. * David Boyd Haycock, "A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War" (2009) * J. Hone, ''The Life of Henry Tonks'' (1939) * L. Morris (ed.), ''Henry Tonks and the 'art of pure drawing' '' (1985) * New English Art Club, ''One hundred and fiftieth annual open exhibition, featuring a selection of work by Professor Henry Tonks ... from the Royal College of Surgeons and the Imperial War Museum'' (1997) * J. Rothenstein, 'Henry Tonks 1862–1937', in J. Rothenstein, ''Modern English Painters Sickert To Smith'' (1952) * Tate Gallery, ''Exhibition of Works by Professor Henry Tonks'' xhibition catalogue(1936), 7p.


External links

*
Henry Tonks pastels – collections of the Royal College of Surgeons, London and the Slade School, UCL

The Portraiture of Loss
– Dr Suzannah Biernoff in Ampersand magazine on Tonks' work and its impact on medical study and portraiture {{DEFAULTSORT:Tonks, Henry 1862 births 1937 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art British Army personnel of World War I British Impressionist painters British war artists Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Medical illustrators People educated at Bloxham School People educated at Clifton College People from Solihull Royal Army Medical Corps officers World War I artists 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists