Henry alken biography

Henry Thomas Alken - Artvee

Henry Alken was an English painter and engraver best known for his caricatures and sporting and coaching scene illustrations. Whilst his work is not as well-known as that of others who specialized in similar artistic endeavors, his talent was every bit as great and his influence on the British art of the sporting world cannot be measured. He was born on October 12, in the Soho neighborhood of Westminster London. His father was Samuel Alken who was a sporting artist. His brother, Samuel Alken the Younger, also became an artist.

Henry Thomas Alken

English painter

Henry Thomas Alken (12 October – 7 April ) was an English painter and engraver chiefly known as a caricaturist and illustrator of sporting subjects and coaching scenes.^[1] His most prolific period of painting and drawing occurred between and

Life

Alken was born on 12 October in Soho, Westminster, and baptised on 6 November at St James's Church, Piccadilly.

He was the third son of Samuel Alken, a sporting artist. Two of his brothers were George and Samuel Alken the Younger, also an artist. In , the Alken family moved from Soho to 2, Francis Street East, Bedford Square.

Young Henry first studied under his father and then with the miniature painter John Thomas Barber Beaumont (–), also known as J.

T. Barber.^[2] In , Alken sent a miniature portrait of Miss Gubbins to the Royal Academy Exhibition. He exhibited a second miniature at the Royal Academy before abandoning miniature painting and taking on painting and illustrating. Early in his career, he painted sporting subjects under the name of "Ben Tally-O".^[3] Alken married Maria Gordon on 14 October at St Clement's Church, Ipswich.

Samuel henry alken After receiving his first art lessons from his father, young Henry was sent for instruction under John Thomas Barber Beaumont , a painter of miniatures. Henry exhibited twice at the Royal Academy , and displayed an early liking for depicting animals, especially dogs and horses and became the dominant sporting artist of the early nineteenth century. Henry's first sporting prints were published in , and he demonstrated his expertise in the book 'The Beauties and Defects in the Figure of the Horse Comparatively Delineated' Henry maintained a connection with Ipswich, evident in 'A Cockney's Shooting Season in Suffolk' and 'The First Steeple-Chase on Record' , which recorded a nocturnal romp by cavalry officers stationed at Ipswich in and became the single most popular set of sporting prints. He authored several books on aspects of engraving, including 'The Art and Practice of Engraving'

On 22 August of the following year later the couple's first son was baptised. Alken went on to father five children, of whom two were artists, Samuel Henry, also a sporting artist, known as Henry Alken junior, and Sefferien junior.

From about onwards Alken "produced an unending stream of paintings, drawings and engravings of every type of field and other sporting activity,"^[4] and his soft-ground etchings were often colored by hand.^[5] When Alken was 26, he and his young family lived over a shop in Haymarket that belonged to print publisher Thomas McLean of the "Repository of Wit and Humour."^[5] McLean paid Alken a daily wage of thirty shillings, considered a good income at the time.^[1]

Alken died in April and was buried on the western side of Highgate cemetery.

Although fairly affluent for most of his career, he fell on hard times towards the end of his life and was buried at his daughter's expense.^[3]

Work

Alken worked in both oil and watercolor and was a skilled etcher.^[6] His earliest productions were published anonymously under the signature of "Ben Tallyho", but in he issued The Beauties & Defects in the Figure of the Horse comparatively delineated under his own name.

From this date until about , he produced many sets of etchings of sporting subjects mostly coloured and sometimes humorous in character, the principal of which were: Humorous Specimens of Riding , Symptoms of being amazed , Symptoms of being amused , Flowers from Nature , A Touch at the Fine Arts , and Ideas Besides these he published a series of books: Illustrations for Landscape Scenery and Scraps from the Sketch Book of Henry Alken in , New Sketch Book in , Sporting Scrap Book and Shakespeare's Seven Ages in , Sporting Sketches and in Illustrations to Popular Songs and Illustrations of Don Quixote, the latter engraved by John Christian Zeitter.^[7]

Alken provided the plates picturing hunting, coaching, racing and steeplechasing for The National Sports of Great Britain (London, ).^[8] Alken, known as an avid sportsman, is best remembered for his hunting prints, many of which he engraved himself until the late s.

(Charles Lane British Racing Prints pp.&#;75–76).

Henry alken prints Henry Thomas Alken was an English painter and engraver chiefly known as a caricaturist and illustrator of sporting subjects and coaching scenes. His most prolific period of painting and drawing occurred between and He was the third son of Samuel Alken, a sporting artist. Two of his brothers were George and Samuel Alken the Younger, also an artist. Young Henry first studied under his father and then with the miniature painter John Thomas Barber Beaumont — , also known as J.

He created prints for the leading sporting printsellers such as S. and J. Fuller, Thomas McLean, and Rudolph Ackermann, and often collaborated with his friend the sporting journalist Charles James Apperley (–), also known as Nimrod.^[9] Nimrod's Life of a Sportsman, with 32 etchings by Alken, was published by Ackermann in ^[5] In many of his etchings, Alken explored the comic side of riding and satirized the foibles of aristocrats, much in the tradition of other early 19th century omthe oldest of the great foxhound packs in Leicestershire.^[10] A collection of his illustrations can be seen in the print department of the British Museum.

Gallery

Circa Duck-baiting by Henry Alken
Circa A scene from Badger Baiting a series also so called "Master George" by Henry Alken
March 1, One of several engravings by Alken at the same time "published by S. & J.

Fuller, at their Sporting Gallery, 34, Rathbone Place."
January 1, A Steeple Chase. "Plate " of 6 by Henry Alken
Portrait of Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort by Henry Alken

Books illustrated by Henry Alken

References

^ ^a^bR.

R. Tatlock. Henry Alken (The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 37, No. , - Nov ) pp.
^Henry Thomas Alken (Painting in England: , Collection of Mr and Mrs. Paul Mellon)
^ ^a^bRalph Neville,Old Sporting Prints in The Connoisseur magazine,
^See text at Donald A.

Heald (antique books) under Alken, Henry Thomas, "Illustrations to popular songs".
^ ^a^b^cArthur M. Hind.A History of Engraving From the 15th Century to the Year
^Child's Gallery: Painting Annual
^"Alken, Henry"&#;.

Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. –
^Henry Thomas Alken.
Henry alken biography Henry Thomas Alken 12 October — 7 April was an English painter and engraver chiefly known as a caricaturist and illustrator of sporting subjects and coaching scenes. He was the third son of Samuel Alken , a sporting artist. Two of his brothers were George and Samuel Alken the Younger, also an artist. Young Henry first studied under his father and then with the miniature painter John Thomas Barber Beaumont — , also known as J. He exhibited a second miniature at the Royal Academy before abandoning miniature painting and taking on painting and illustrating.
The National Sports of Great Britain (New York: D. Appleton, ).
^Alken, Henry. "Military Duties, Occurrences etc. etc." (London: Thomas McLean, c. ).
^Fox Hunting and the BanArchived 25 January at the Wayback Machine ()

Attribution

&#;This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:&#;"Alken, Henry".

Henry Thomas Alken 1785–1851 - Tate

Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. –

External links

Media related to Henry Thomas Alken at Wikimedia Commons