John Evan Hodgson (
London
London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
1 March 1831 – 1895) was an English painter. He painted domestic genres scenes, historical subjects, and in an orientalist fashion inspired by North Africa.
Life
The elder son of John Hodgson, a Russia merchant and member of a leading family in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, he was born in London. At the age of four he was taken to
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, but was sent to England eight years later for his education. He entered Rugby school in February 1846, and on leaving school returned to St. Petersburg and entered his father's counting-house.
Influenced by the old masters in
The Hermitage collection and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...
's ''
Modern Painters
''Modern Painters'' (1843–1860) is a five-volume work by the Victorian art critic, John Ruskin, begun when he was 24 years old based on material collected in Switzerland in 1842. Ruskin argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of ...
'', Hodgson gave up commerce for an artist's career. In 1853 he went to London and entered as a student at the
Royal Academy of Arts
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 purpo ...
. He exhibited his first picture, ''The Notice of Ejectment'', in 1856. From 1859 he lived at 5 Hill Road, Abbey Road, London, and he became a member of the group known later as the
St John's Wood set, of which
Philip Calderon
Philip Hermogenes Calderon ( Poitiers 3 May 1833 – 30 April 1898 London) was an English painter of French birth (mother) and Spanish (father) ancestry who initially worked in the Pre-Raphaelite style before moving towards historical genr ...
was the leader.
Hodgson was elected an associate of the Royal Academy on 28 January 1873, and an academician on 18 December 1879. He was appointed librarian to the Royal Academy in 1882 in succession to
Solomon Alexander Hart
Solomon Alexander Hart (April 1806 – 11 June 1881) was a British painter and engraver. He was the first Jewish member of the Royal Academy in London and was probably the most important Jewish artist working in England in the 19th century ...
, and professor of painting later in the same year in succession to
Edward Armitage
Edward Armitage (20 May 1817 – 24 May 1896) was an English Victorian-era painter whose work focused on historical, classical and biblical subjects.
Family background
Armitage was born in London to a family of wealthy Yorkshire industrialist ...
. He died on 19 June 1895 at The Larches,
Coleshill, Buckinghamshire
Coleshill (formerly Stoke) is a village and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is south of Amersham and north of Beaconsfield.
History
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Coll's hill', ...
, where he had resided for about ten years
and was buried in the family grave in
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Works
Hodgson showed scenes of domestic life, such as ''The Arrest'' (1857), ''Elector and Candidate'' (1858), and ''The German Patriot's Wife'' (1859). A little later he took to historical subjects, and exhibited ''Sir Thomas More and his Daughters in Holbein's Studio'' (1861), ''The Return of Drake from Cadiz, 1587'' (1862), ''The First Sight of the Armada'' (1863), ''Queen Elizabeth at Purfleet'' (1864), ''Taking Home the Bride, 1612'' (1865), ''A Jew's Daughter accused of Witchcraft in the Middle Ages'' (1866), ''Evensong'' (1867), ''Off the Downs in the Days of the Caesars'', and two domestic subjects (1868).
A journey to the north of Africa in 1868 led to a change of subjects, and the first of Hodgson's oriental pictures, ''An Arab Story-teller'', was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869. It was followed by a long series of pictures of life in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis.
From 1879 Hodgson painted marine subjects, such as ''Homeward Bound'' (1880), ''Bound for the Black Sea'' and ''A Shipwrecked Sailor waiting for a Sail'', his diploma work, exhibited in 1881. Versatile in his later years, he exhibited, among other works, ''Painter and Critic'', ''Hobbema's Country'', and ''In the Low Countries'' (1882), ''Robert Burns at the Plough'' (1887), and landscapes such as ''Rural England'' and ''Coleshill Common''.
Hodgson exhibited, in all, 90 pictures at the Royal Academy and about half that number at other galleries. He contributed, with
Frederick A. Eaton, a series of articles on the history of the Academy in the eighteenth century to ''
The Art Journal
''The Art Journal'' was the most important British 19th-century magazine on art. It was founded in 1839 by Hodgson & Graves, print publishers, 6 Pall Mall, with the title ''Art Union Monthly Journal'' (or ''The Art Union''), the first issue of 7 ...
'' in 1889. He also published ''Academy Lectures'' in 1884, and ''Fifty Years of British Art'' on the occasion of the Manchester exhibition in 1887. He was a contributor to ''The Architect'' and other periodicals and journals.
Gallery
File:John Evan Hodgson, by Walter William Ouless.jpg, ''John Evan Hodgson'' Walter by William Ouless
File:John Evan Hodgson The french naturalist in Algiers.jpg, ''The french naturalist in Algiers''
File:John Evan Hodgson RA “The Arrest” (1857).jpg, ''The Arrest ''
File:Family grave of John Evan Hodgson in Highgate Cemetery.jpg, Family grave of John Evan Hodgson in Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
Notes
;Attribution
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References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgson, John Evan
1831 births
1895 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
English painters
English librarians
English writers
Royal Academicians
Artists' Rifles soldiers