Abundance

Arthur Hacker, RA (1858-1919)

Oil on canvas

Dated 1916 and inscribed verso with title

51 1/2 x 39 inches

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1916, no. 462

“This magnificent and opulent painting was an odd subject for the Royal Academy of 1916, the year of the Somme, and yet this style of Academic Neo- Classical painting lasted past the deaths of Poynter and Hacker in 1919 at least to that of Draper in 1920.” [continues below]

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Indeed the later manifestations of Academic Neo- Classical painting can be decadent, even modern in treatment, if not in subject. Although the wind of change was blowing hard against the old styles after the Great War, Hacker's obituarist in The Times praised him: ‘People supposed that this foreign manner was necessarily artistic; it was at least a change from the old British manner of anecdote and the old British way of painting it. Mr Hacker did at any rate, while setting one object upon a canvas, remember that he had also to paint others. He gave us atmosphere, subordination, and colours that did not compete with one another like noises in the street. But Mr Hacker was not content to go on painting fancy pictures in a Salon manner... and in later years aimed at a vague but pleasant iridescence in his subject pictures.'” — Rupert Maas

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Last modified 20 May 2014