Royal Academy artists petition for H.G. Hine’s family

There is a letter on eBay that is currently for sale $500, you can purchase it here.

Dated June 1913, on headed paper from the private members club, The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, the letter is addressed to the Prime Minister., Herbert Henry Asquith.

Petition to the Prime Minister
from eBay here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1913-Petition-Signed-by-13-British-Artists-of-Royal-Academy-for-HG-Hines-Family/251797099551?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

“We desire to bring to your notice the claims for a Civil List Pension of the three unmarried daughters of the late Henry George Hine – Vice President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour.

Mr H. G. Hine was held in very high esteem both as an artist and a man by the leading members of his profession.  He was one of the first contributors to “Punch” and drew for other publications.  Later in his life he took on any?? High position as an exponent of the essentially British Art of Water-Colour painting.  His refined and thorough work – reflecting his loveable & gentle character-revealed to his fellow countryman the beauties of the South Downs, the charms of his native County of Sussex.  His pictures are always sought after for International Exhibitions.  Where they are certainly valuable additions to the British Section.  He died at an advanced age, working till within a few days of his death.  He had a large family & died poor.

This appeal to aid his three unmarried daughters is to enable them to rest from the work which up to the present they have bravely continued

The ages of these ladies are seventy, sixty-six and sixty-four."

A number of signatures, of which the following names can be deciphered (or copied from the write-up on the sale):

"Edward J. Poynter 

Ernest Waterlow

Walter William Ouless

Frank Dicksee

Hubert von Herkomer

William Blake Richmond KCB RA

Briton Riviere

George Clausen

John Seymour Lucas"

Petition to the Prime Minister
from eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1913-Petition-Signed-by-13-British-Artists-of-Royal-Academy-for-HG-Hines-Family/251797099551?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Looking at the Hine family tree, I think the 3 sisters that the petition is requesting a Civil List pension for are:

Alice Hine (1843-?)

Elizabeth M Hine (1846-1922)

Marian Hine (1848-1937) - who was living in Haslemere in Greenbushes (1901) and Silverbirches (1911).

Generational conflict?

Having read Walter Crane's memoirs, it has become apparent to me that Henry Hine and his daughters and sons-in-law may well have differed in their view of art.

Special edition of The Studio, 1906
from archive.org

Henry George Hine (Ethel Blount and Maude Egerton Hine's father) was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours ('the Institute') from 1864 onwards, becoming Vice President in 1887, a post he held until his death in 1895.  His son, Harry Hine became a member in 1879.

Wareham Bridge, Henry G. Hine,
from The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours,
The Studio, Special Number, Spring 1906

Walter Crane was a member of the Royal Institute of Watercolours from 1882.  Crane joined the Institute when it absorbed 'The Dudley', another watercolour group which organized an annual 'General Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings' which was held in the Egyptian Gallery of the Dudley Gallery.  In 'The History of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours' (The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, The Studio, Special Number, Spring 1906) it is noted that the Institute gained from 'The Dudley' "some of the best men...amongst these men may be noted some like Richard Beavis, Walter Crane and Herbert von Herkomer...twenty-seven men all of repute and distinguished capacity".  There is another connection here as Godfrey Blount trained under Herbert von Herkomer at Bushey.

The admission of "The Dudley" members swelled the Institute to what seems today a modest number of eighty-nine.  Walter Crane exhibited a number of works including La Belle Dame Sans Merci in their new Piccadilly galleries in 1884.  

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, by Walter Crane
exhibited at the Royal Institute of Watercolours, 1884

The conflict in the art scene at the time however led Walter Crane to resign from the Institute in 1886, along with George Clausen, one of his fellow Chelsea Conspirators.  Professor von Herkomer also left the Institute in 1890.   They all joined the rival organization, the Old Watercolour Society; Crane joined in 1888, Clausen in 1889 and von Herkomer in 1893.  Referred to at the time as the 'Old Society', this  is now called the Royal Watercolour Society.  They describe themselves on their website as "second only to the Royal Academy of Art in importance as an art society".  Crane states that at the time of resignation, he had done so "with no thought of being a candidate for another body" (Crane, Walter, An Artist’s Reminscences, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1907), so it appears that the Old Society had not lured the members away.

The two main UK watercolour organizations c.1900,
both of which are still in existence today

Walter Crane refers to his resignation from the Institute in 1886 as a follow-on from the early history of the Arts and Crafts movement.  He reproduces a letter from Sir James Dromgole Linton, president of the Institute at the time, Crane comments that prior to the letter Linton had tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to withdraw his resignation, "my dear Crane, I am sorry there was no alternative but resignation" (Crane, ibid).  Interestingly Linton was residing at Haverstock Hill in 1886 as was Henry G. Hine and family.

Study of St Albans Abbey at Sunset,
Harry T. Hine, 1880

The discontent with the established art organizations at the time, is demonstrated by Walter Crane in his public request for sponsorship of the first exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888 "It has not been possible for a craftsman to test his work by the side of others, or, by a careful selection of examples, to prove that there are artists in other ways than oil or water colour, and other art than that enclosed in gilt frames or supported on pedestals." 

190-195 Piccadilly, London,
home of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour 1883-1970
where Henry G. Hine was Vice President 1887-1895

Throughout the emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement, Henry G. Hine held the position of Vice President at one of the rigid arts establishments.  I wonder what debates may have been had between him, his son Harry and his daughters and sons-in-law?  Would Henry have embraced the diverse crafts that the Blounts and the Kings called art?  Ultimately it would appear that Henry G. Hine left many of his paintings to Maude Egerton King (his youngest daughter), so whatever differences they may have had about art were overcome.

Godfrey Blout, from Arbor Vitae, 1899

Hine Family Artists

In addition to the Towner Art Gallery exhibition of Henry George Hine in 2003 (in my previous post), the other main Henry George Hine event in recent years was the October 1988 Christie's sale of 'Watercolours by Henry George Hine and other artists of the Hine family'.  It is interesting to see the art that Maude Egerton King's (nee Hine) and Ethel Blount's (nee Hine) close family were producing.

Illustrated by Figures crossing a back Street in London, early morning, Winter, 1887 by Henry George Hine

Henry George Hine 1811-1895
According to the brochure, a large number of the paintings Hine produced in the 1840s and early 1850s, were commissioned by his friend the poet and antiquarian F. Wykeham Archer FSA, who probably commissioned Fire at Drury Lane.    Hine first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830 with an oil painting Don Quixote in the Sable Mountains, in 1833 he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Society of British Artists a work The Tired Bandit.  He then continued to exhibit at both venues regularly.  His oil painting Smugglers awaiting for a Lugger exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1859 is stated as the turning point in Hine's career, generating a lot of attention.

Henry George Hine

In 1863 Hine was elected to the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, his exhibits that year included St Paul's from Fleet Street and The Great Fire, Cotton's Wharf as seen from the New Cattle Market.  In 1864 Hine exhibited a landscape watercolour View of Ballard Down and Cliffs from Peveril Point, Dorset.  From then on Hine spent the majority of his time painting in his favourite part of England, the South Downs around Brighton, Lewes, Haywards Heath, Midhurst and Eastbourne.  He was to exhibit almost exclusively at the Institute (which became the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1884), and almost exclusively landscapes of the South Downs.  Hine is quoted as saying that "it was as difficult and subtle to mould the shapes of the South Downs as it was a human body".


Records show that Hine exhibited 331 paintings in his lifetime: 306 at the Institute, 16 at Suffolk Street and 8 at the Royal Academy.  His ledger records a large number of his works being commissioned or sold to 3 buyers: Joseph King (his son-in-law), E.J.Vialls and H.Burton.  Hine became Vice-President of the Royal Institute in 1887 and was annually re-elected until his death.  Friends suggested he never became President due to his modesty, and that this was also why he never had an exhibition devoted entirely to him in his lifetime.  In 1896 The Fine Art Society held an exhibition The South Downs by the late H. G. Hine, V.P.R.I. and in 1905 Leicester Galleries  exhibited H. G. Hine, V. P. R. I.


Hine died of bronchitis in 1895, following influenza.  He is recorded as having been able to wield his brush right until the last.  In 1890, Tom Taylor of The Times wrote of Hine's view of Fittleworth Common "...in its grave and solemn dignity, in the beauty of its colour and line, and in the subtle way in which it renders the atmosphere of Southern England, this Sussex drawing is a masterpiece.  A man who can do this at seventy-nine is surely a great artist."


The tributes following his death showed that Hine would also be remembered for his kind heart and his sense of humour.  Hine regularly helped artists less fortunate than himself, and was well known as a great raconteur of his own stories of Brighton and London in the old days, and those of his father, recorded in Maude Egerton King's Round about a Brighton Coach Office.  Hine was also known jokingly to trace his ancestry back to a Captain Hine, a highwayman and Royalist executed by Cromwell.


Mary Ann Eliza Hine (nee Egerton)1817-1901
Hine's wife was a painter herself and she exhibited a figurative watercolour at the Dudley Gallery in 1873 (Graves, A Dictionary of Artists, 1901).

Possibly William Egerton Hine by Cecil Beaton, 1918, National Portrait Gallery

William Egerton Hine, courtesy of Harrow School

William Egerton Hine 1851-1926
' Eggie' Hine was Cecil Beaton' s art master at Harrow. An accomplished artist who exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy and other London galleries, he revolutionised the teaching of art at Harrow and built its first art school. It was with his tutelage and support that Beaton's talent for drawing and painting blossomed and he began winning prizes and selling work.


According to the Christie's catalogue, William exhibited at the Royal Academy, Suffolk Street, the New Society and the Dudley Gallery.  According to Harrow School records, William studied at the School of Art , Nuremberg and under M. Gerome in Paris .  He was Inspector of Art to the London University Extension Board and an Exhibition of Watercolours by him was held at the Fine Art Society in London 1910-11.  He joined Harrow School as an Art teacher in 1892 and left in 1922.

Borrowdale at Sunset by William Egerton Hine, 1921

Of the three works at the Christie's auction, including the above, Studland Beach in 1909 is described as further transcribed "To my dear niece Katharine King on her 21st birthday from the painter".  The other work dated April 1895 A House at Lower Bertly, Witley, would appear to place his sister Maude Egerton King and Joseph King at Lower Bertly in 1895 with William visiting them.  It would appear therefore that the Kings were living in Lower Bertly (now called Lower Birtley) when they first moved to the area, and there have been some other references to this, but sometime before the 1901 census they moved a mile up the road to Upper Birtley.

A House at Lower Bertley, Witley by William Egerton Hine, 1895

When William died in 1926 he bequeathed Longdene Copse, Haslemere.  This would suggest he retired to Haslemere, and possibly was living with his sister Marion Hine or had been living in her old house.  Marion is recorded on the 1911 census as living in Silverbirches, Longdene Road, Haslemere.

A young Ethel Blount? A Girl Playing a Grand Piano in Drawing Room by Esther Hine, 1872

A young Ethel Blount?  A Girl Playing with a Doll in an Interior by Esther Hine, 1872

Esther Hine 1842-1872
Esther was a portrait painter, and became the Art Mistress at the North London Collegiate School for Girls.  The Christie's auction lists two pencil and watercolours A Girl Playing a Grand Piano in Drawing Room (1872), where the back is inscribed identifying the sitter as 'either Ethel (b.1864) or Katherine (b. 1859), and A Girl Playing with a Doll in an Interior, where the backboard identifies the room as being in the Hine's house.  Presumably both of these paintings were of the Hine household, and of Esther's sisters.  The latter painting is now in the Guarisco Gallery in Washington DC.  Both of these paintings appear to have been painted in the year of her death.

Ely Cathedral by Harry T. Hine

Harry T. Hine 1845-1941
There were four of Harry's pencil and watercolour works in the Christie's sale.  What is somewhat strange is Christie's describing Harry as being the "Art Master at Harrow between 1892 until 1932", when it would appear that his brother William was the Art Master there not Harry.  The works in the auction were Lincoln Cathedral at Sunset, Ely Cathedral, Durham Cathedral and Bamborough Castle, Early Morning.


Edith Hine 
Within some of the lots are works by Edith Hine, who is referred to as one of Henry George Hine's daughters.  Works produced by her include A Pastel of a Garden Near a Tudor Style House (August 1916) and a watercolour of Mrs H.G.Hine in a doorway, reading.


Christopher Norris
The Christie's auction was from the collection of the late Christopher Norris.  Norris was born in Haslemere in 1907.  His mother was Mellicent Oakes who was a good friend of Maude Egerton King.  Her husband was Major S. L. Norris, R.E.  Greville MacDonald recalls in a letter to his mother about meeting Mellicent in November 1899 "I had a happy day at Birtly.  Maude's girlfriend, only 15, Melcie Oakes, was there: such a wonderful gentle personality.  She can lie down in the woods and call the birds and they come to her!  She worships Father, and seems to have, though little more than a child, an awareness of magical on-goings.  Her mother, Maude tells me, is almost superhuman in her deep perceptions of spiritual happenings, extraordinarily gifted in second sight." (MacDonald, 1932, Reminiscences of a Specialist, London, George Allen and Unwin).  Melcie is described as working on The Vineyard with Maude Egerton King, and becoming life-long friends.  Their families remained close, and Katharine King became godmother to Christopher Norris' younger daughter Tessa.


It was through Maude that Norris became acquainted with H.G.Hine's work, where he built up an extensive collection.  A number of the works were bequeathed to him from the Kings or the Hine family.  


The works - more information

• A large number of the works had been owned by William Egerton Hine.  
• Fisherfolk on the Shore near a beached Merchantboat came from Gertrude Hine (1951)
• A Faggot Gatherer and another Figure in Cowdray Park (?) was from Gertrude Hine.  Cowdray Park being the closest place to Haslemere from Hine's pictures.  Christie's note that "Cowdray Park was a favourite subject for the artist and provided endless inspiration.  Seven views of the park trees and church were exhibited at the Institute between 1878 and 1886."
• A Fishing Fleet in a Calm (1881) went from Ethel Hine to Greville MacDonald
• Fishermen on Beachy Head, Sunset (1893) went from Joseph King to his second wife, Helena King then to Norris in 1977, and was originally bought for 100 guineas
• Joseph King had owned the two London pictures - A Figure Crossing a Back London Street, Early Morning, Winter (1887), which is thought to be in Hampstead where Hine was living at the time, and A Fire in Drury Lane by the Cock and Magpie (1887)
• Portrait of the Artist's Mother went from Maude Egerton King to her daughter Katharine King and then to Norris
• A Sluice Mill, Pevensey Marshes was sold to Joseph King in 1913 for 5 guineas and given to Mellicent Norris as a gift from Maude Egerton King

Henry George Hine

H.G. Hine (1811-1895) watercolourist was father to two of the key Peasant Arts members: Ethel Blount (nee Hine) and Maude Egerton King (nee Hine).  Hine "defined himself as a 'country creature' with a deep-seated love of the Sussex landscape" (Towner Art Gallery, Henry George Hine: The South Downs in Watercolour, 2003).  Hine was born in East Street, Brighton, his father ran a coach company in Brighton, operating between Brighton and London.  The tales he told his children about his time there are retold in Maude's 'Round about a Brighton Coach Office' (King, 1896).

H.G.Hine by William Walker Hodgson, 1891 from The National Portrait Gallery

Hine began working in London in the 1830s as an apprentice draughtsman to Henry Meyer the mezzotint and stipple engraver, at the time a prominent exhibitor of engraved portraits.  However he gave up this position and spent two years living in Rouen where apparently he had family connections, and painted some works such as The Interior of the Cloister of Rouen Cathedral which was exhibted at the Royal Academy.  In 1841 he joined Punch, then newly launched, making black and white illustrations, about a year later he transferred to Puck a rival publication.

Punch, Jul-Dec 1843

Punch, Jan-June 1843

It is said that Hine was refused membership of the two main watercolour societies, The Society of Painters in Water-Colours and the New Society, before he was elected in 1863 as an associate of the New Society.  The New Society renamed itself as the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, in 1887 Hine was appointed Vice President.  At some point the Institute became the 'Royal Institute'.

Dog Cart and Gentleman

In the 1850s Hine specialised on beach scenes with boats.  It was only in 1860s that he began to produce downland landscapes which his built his reputation.  "Clearly he had known the Sussex Downs all his life, but only in his middle age did he begin to explore the artistic possibilities of that most glorious part of England.  Hine's calm contemplation of the 'great trats of upland pasturage, the thin sweet herbage of chalk lands: swelling hills that the light rested on, and that radiant skies passed over' led to what may be regarded as the defining artistic evocation of the Downs." (Towner Art Gallery, 2003).

Fire in Drury Lane by the Cock and Magpie

A particular aspect of Hine's work is the lightness and subtlety of colour, "his watercolours appear more strongly coloured than they really are, because of the way he found to convey the brightness of the landscape." (ibid).

The Fish Market and Leaf Hall, Eastbourne, Sussex

Greville MacDonald was an admirer of Hine's work before he met Maude and Ethel.  Around 1863, when Greville was 7 years old,  he recounts the 'old home of delight' being taken to "the Polytechnic, to see the "dissolving views' of Christmas Fairy Tales" (MacDonald, Reminiscences of a Specialist, 1932) by Lewis Carroll.  He notes that his attraction to these pictures was not surprising "seeing that these lantern slides were painted by that consummate revealer of the South Downs glory, H.G.Hine, V.P.R.I., in his early days".

Near Steyning

In describing Maude Egerton King in Reminiscences of a Specialist, MacDonald says "so illuminating is heredity that the first step, I think,  towards understanding her may well be the realization of her father's genius.  My first intimacy with H.G.Hine, though not personal, was yet deep.  A few years later than my first meeting with Miss Maude Hine, and alreadyoverwhelmed with work, I had to visit frequently a patientwho owned a dozen or more of her father's poetic water-colourdrawings.  

The South Downs Sussex 1881

Although he was vice President of the Royal Institute, I had not till then fully realized his genius.  But the wonder of these few drawings now so gripped me that then and there, I was swept into the South Downs' loveliness which H.G.Hine, like none before, or since has portrayed.  One somehow shared their limners tread over uplands redolent with thyme's sweet pungency; one understood his tender, colloquial handling of sheep and shepherds, inviting all to join in their converse.  Only magic could make these pigment harmoniesdeclare the sheep-bells tinkling, the wheat-ears' timid songs, or, maybe, the ploughman's call to his horses down away, there, in the wide Weald.  more; only such magic could tell us this rare secret: that Beauty waits with open door and greeting for everyone.  

from the 2003 Exhibition

Later, Maude King told me how her father once avowed that no picture was worth much if it failed to point the way out of itself.  And I think this is the secret of his work, whether with South Downs or ruined castles, mossy dells or wastes of desolate ocean.  This it was, rather than his perfect technique or fadeless colouring, that made me, certainly no critic, know how near he stood to Turner, Constable, David Cox - even to Samuel Palmer, that gentle-souled pupil of William Blake."

See also my further post on the Hine family artists.