Hall Thorpe
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John Hall Thorpe (29 April 18748 October 1947), invariably known as Hall Thorpe, was an Australian artist who achieved considerable success in England with his decorative prints of flowers, fruit and landscapes.


History

Thorpe was born in
Sandridge, Victoria Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populati ...
and when quite young the family moved to
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, finally settled in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, where he was educated at St John's Grammar School, Parramatta. He studied at the Society of Arts and was briefly employed at the ''
Illustrated Sydney News ''The Illustrated Sydney News'' was a monthly English language newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History First published on 8 October 1853 by Walter George Mason (1820 – 12 March 1866), William Edward Vernon and Ludolf ...
''. He learned the trade or craft of woodblock engraving as an apprentice on
John Fairfax John Fairfax (24 October 1804 – 16 June 1877) was an English-born journalist, company director, politician, librarian and newspaper owner, known for the incorporation of the major newspapers of modern-day Australia. Early life Fairfax was bo ...
's '' Sydney Mail'' from 1891. When zinc replaced wood as the engraving medium, he became a staff artist, succeeding Norman Hardy as their principal artist in 1897. He was a member of the (Sydney) Society of Artists, and showed successfully alongside the likes of G. W. Lambert, Sid Long, Dattilo-Rubbo, J. S. Watkins, Edith Loudon, Mildred Rivett,
Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...
, W. F. Hughes, C. Lloyd Jones and Howard Ashton. In 1898 he had several paintings shown at the
Grafton Galleries The Grafton Galleries, often referred to as the Grafton Gallery, was an art gallery in Mayfair, London. The French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel showed the first major exhibition in Britain of Impressionist paintings there in 1905. Roger Fry's t ...
' "Exhibition of Australian Art" in London, and in May 1900 left for England, his position on the ''Mail'' having become tenuous with the advent of photo-engraving. He attended Heatherley’s School of Art and developed a distinctive style of coloured woodcut prints. He exhibited at the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
's Colonial Exhibition in 1906 alongside
Arthur Streeton Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. Early life Streeton was born in Mount Moriac, Victoria ...
, G. W. Lambert, Albert Tucker, Edith Lumley and
Hayley Lever Richard Hayley Lever (28 September 1876 – 6 December 1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life and wor ...
. A breakthrough came when he received a favorable notice from eminent critic M.
Camille Mauclair Séverin Faust (December 29, 1872, Paris – April 23, 1945), better known by his pseudonym Camille Mauclair (), was a French poet, novelist, biographer, travel writer, and art critic. Background Mauclair was a great admirer of Stéphane Mallarmà ...
. Around this time he changed direction and resuscitated his hard-won skills as a woodblock engraver, producing the large, bold bright colourful prints for which he became famous. One of these, ''A Country Bunch'', at was possibly the largest woodblock colour art print ever published. He took control of the whole process; engraving, printing and publishing from his studio at 36 Redcliffe Square, and gallery at 32 Sussex Place,
South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...
, and the results found their way into many homes on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as art collections of the
Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museum ...
, British Royalty, and the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
. The response to his designs could by summarised by a couple of American critics:
"They are not great works of art; they are intimate pictures. They sing out from a white wall, recalling a walk through a garden or a day with Nature" and "His work is consistent in its dignity, its strength, and its happy related colour ... He is never abstruse nor exaggerated, but he emphasises the grace of forms and the joyousness of pure fresh colour."
Thorpe became a household name in the field of home decoration and was a strong influence on fashions in wallpaper design. Over time his work fell out of fashion but a revival from the 1980s has renewed interest in his work. He caught pneumonia and died at
Bexhill-on-Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish in the Rother District in the county of East Sussex in South East England. It is located along the Sussex Coast and between the towns of Hastings, England, Hastings ...
in 1947.


Works

*He is represented in the print collection of the British Museum.Alan McCulloch ''Encyclopedia of Australian Art'', First ed. 1968 — McCulloch spells his name "Hal Thorpe", also seen elsewhere. *The National Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased two of his etchings: ''Castlereagh Street'' and ''The Synagogue''. *The
Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...
has a copy of the print ''A Summer Bunch''.


References


External links


Modern Printmakers: Hall Thorpe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Hall Australian painters Australian engravers Australian printmakers English printmakers 1874 births 1947 deaths 20th-century Australian artists