![Picture of Philip Gilbert Hamerton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Picture_of_Philip_Gilbert_Hamerton.jpg)
Philip Gilbert Hamerton (10 September 1834 – 4 November 1894) was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
artist,
art critic and author. He was a keen advocate of contemporary
printmaking and most of his writings concern the graphic arts. He was an important theorist of the English
Etching Revival
The etching revival was the re-emergence and invigoration of etching as an original form of printmaking during the period approximately from 1850 to 1930. The main centres were France, Britain and the United States, but other countries, such as ...
.
Early life
Hamerton was born at Laneside, a hamlet near
Shaw and Crompton
Shaw and Crompton is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which contains the town of Shaw and lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines. It is located north of Oldham, south ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
, England. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father died ten years later. When he was about five, he was sent to live with his two aunts at an estate called the Hollins on the edge of
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
, where he attended
Burnley Grammar School
Burnley Grammar School was latterly, a state-funded selective boys grammar School, situated in Byron Street in Burnley, England. However, during its long history, it moved between a number of sites in the town.
History
In 1552, on the order of ...
.
Career
![Philip Gilbert Hamerton - The Lake - 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Philip_Gilbert_Hamerton_-_The_Lake_-_1922.352_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.jpg)
Hamerton's first literary attempt, a volume of poems, was unsuccessful, leading him to devote himself for a time entirely to
landscape painting
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...
; he camped out in the
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...
, where he eventually rented the former island of Inistrynich in
Loch Awe
Loch Awe (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Obha'') is a large body of freshwater in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe or Lochawe. There are islands within the loch such ...
, upon which he settled with his wife Eugénie Gindriez, the daughter of a French republican magistrate, in 1858.
Discovering after a time that he was more suited to
art criticism
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is que ...
than painting, he moved to
Sens and later to
Autun
Autun () is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the early Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus as Augustodunum to give a Ro ...
,
where he produced his ''Painter's Camp in the Highlands'' (1863), which was very successful and prepared the way for his standard work on ''Etching and Etchers'' (1866). In the following year he published ''Contemporary French Painters'', and in 1868 a continuation, ''Painting in France after the Decline of Classicism''.
He had by now become art critic to the ''
Saturday Review'', which necessitated frequent visits to England, forcing him to give it up. He proceeded in 1870 to establish and edit an art journal of his own, ''
The Portfolio'', a monthly periodical, each number of which included of a monograph upon some artist or group of artists, often written by him. The journal championed printmaking, especially
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
. He selected and wrote the accompanying text for ''Etchings by French and English Artists'' (London: Seeley, 1874) which included work by
Alphonse Legros and
Léon Gaucherel. The discontinuation of his painting gave him time for writing, and he successively produced ''The Intellectual Life'' (1873), perhaps the best known and most valuable of his writings; ''Round my House'' (1876), notes on French society by a resident; and ''Modern Frenchmen'' (1879), admirable short biographies. He also wrote two novels, ''Wenderholme'' (1870) and ''Marmorne'' (1878).
In 1884 ''Human Intercourse'', another volume of essays, was published, and shortly afterwards Hamerton began his autobiography, which he brought down to 1858. In 1882 he issued a finely illustrated work on the technique of the great masters of various arts, under the title of ''The Graphic Arts'', and three years later another splendidly illustrated volume, ''Landscape'', which traces the influence of landscape upon the mind of man. His last books were: ''Portfolio Papers'' (1889) and ''French and English'' (1889). In 1891 he removed to the neighbourhood of Paris, where he died suddenly in
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the C ...
, occupied to the last with his labours on ''The Portfolio'' and other writings on art.
In 1896 was published Philip Gilbert Hamerton: an ''Autobiography'', 1834–1858; and a ''Memoir'' by his wife, 1858–1894.
Notes
References
*
* Marie Czach (1985). ''Philip Gilbert Hamerton: Victorian Art Critic'', unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Autun ''Philip Gilbert Hamerton, Préface et postface Coline Béry, illustrations Anne Vanier, Collection Corde Raide 2019.''
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamerton, Philip Gilbert
1834 births
1894 deaths
People from Burnley
People from Shaw and Crompton
People educated at Burnley Grammar School
19th-century British journalists
19th-century English novelists
19th-century English painters
English male painters
British male journalists
English art critics
English art historians
English male novelists
English memoirists
19th-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers
19th-century English male artists