Talbot Hughes (1869–1942) was a British painter (of genre, history and landscape), a collector of historical costumes and miniature portraits, and a writer on fine art and costume design. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from the age of 17 until 1913.Taylor, p. 115.

Biography

Talbot Hughes was the son of still-life painter William Hughes, and brother of Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton, a landscape painter. He lived in London, and later in

Osmington Osmington is a village and civil parish within Dorset, England, situated on the Jurassic Coast north-east of Weymouth. In the 2011 census the parish—which includes the small settlements of Upton, Ringstead and Osmington Mills—had a popu ...

, near

Weymouth, Dorset Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third ...

. From 1871 to 1913 he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He also exhibited with the

Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

. In 1894 he was elected to the

Arts Club The Arts Club is a London private members' club founded in 1863 by, among others, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Lord Leighton in Dover Street, Mayfair. It remains a meeting place for men and women involved in the creative arts either ...

. In 1903 he was elected to the Society of Oil Painters.

His painting

His painterly subjects ranged from the allegorical, figurative, and historical to the theatrical. He admired the style of

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (; 21 February 181531 January 1891) was a French Classicist painter and sculptor famous for his depictions of Napoleon, his armies and military themes. He documented sieges and manoeuvres and was the teacher of É ...

,The Magazine of art, Volume 1
/ref> the French classicist painter. Hughes was preoccupied with the refinement of the presentation of his subject, the depiction of idealized feminine beauty and the tribulations of romantic love. In a 1902 article in ''The Magazine of Art'' writer Marion Hepworth Dixon commented on Hughes's "dexterity of hand, the extraordinary facility with which he renders the different surfaces of stuffs, woods, and metal, together with the agility of his outlook and the verve and spontaneity of his eighteenth century designs." Hughes's submissions to the Royal Academy included works carrying such titles as "Temptation" (1899), "Fate leads the willing, and the unwilling drags" (1900) and "The Road of Love" (1900).

His collections

Talbot Hughes amassed a collection of over 750 historical costumes and accessories, dating from c.1450 to the 1870s, which he used as studio props. In 1910 he sold a small collection of bags to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and also donated individual items, including an 1820s

frock coat A frock coat is a formal men's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt cut all around the base just above the knee, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods (1830s–1910s). It is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at th ...

. In 1913, when Hughes decided to put the rest of his collection up for sale, he was offered £5,000 by an American department store who wished to donate it to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Rather than send his collection abroad, Hughes instead sold it for £2,500 to the department store Harrods in London, where it was displayed for three weeks to advertise the store's own range of women's contemporary fashions. After this period, Harrods transferred the collection by donation to the Victoria & Albert Museum, the result of negotiations by the then Director of the V&A,

Cecil Harcourt Smith Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith (1859–1944) was a British archaeologist and museum director. He was Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum from 1904 to 1909, and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1909 to 1924. Ea ...

.Old English Costumes
The collection is still kept at the V&A.Talbot Hughes collection
/ref> Talbot Hughes continued to donate individual items to the Museum until 1931. Also in 1913, Hughes published his book ''Dress Design: an account of costume for artists and dress makers, illustrated by the author from old examples''. In 1928 the dealer Philip Rosenbach bought Hughes’s collection of 450 miniature portraits.
In 1988 the

Rosenbach Museum & Library The Rosenbach is a Philadelphia museum and library located within two 19th-century townhouses. The historic houses contain the collections and treasures of Philip Rosenbach and his younger brother Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach. The brothers owned the ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, USA, mounted an exhibition of 30 of his Spanish portrait miniatures.

Paintings and Illustrations: External links

The Story of the Hare That Got Away
1898
The Path of True Love Never Did Run SmoothSewing for Victory
1900
The Merry Widow, Illustration
1905

References

Bibliography

*Taylor, Lou.
Establishing dress history
' (Manchester University Press, 2004). *C. Kains-Jackson, ''Catalogue of a collection of cabinet pictures by Talbot Hughes'' (1901 Fine Art Society)

External links

* *
Hughes, ''Dress Design: an account of costume for artists & dressmakers'', Pitmann & Sons, 1920

Old English Costume: The Talbot Hughes Collection at the V&A
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Talbot 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters British writers Collectors 1942 deaths 1869 births 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists