Subtle, skilful and very English
Evelyn Jo11
THOMAS HEARNE AND HIS LANDSCAPE by David Morris
Realaion Books, £25, pp.160
One of our most distinguished museum directors, now retired, is reported to have said that the only thing that he disliked more than an English watercolour was one that had faded. He would not have admired Hearne's work which, restrained in colour and dependent on a subtle blend of tonal values, becomes, when faded, very drab indeed. Yet, as this excellent account of Hearne's work and career demonstrates, he played a not insignificant part in the development of the English watercolour school.
Thomas Hearne was born in 1744 near Bath but moved in the late 1750s to London where he was apprenticed to the landscape engraver, William Woollett, from 1765-71. These were years of drudgery, for engravers were then consi- dered as 'mere mechanics', not eligible for Academy membership and no prints were shown in the RA exhibitions.
However, Hearne then had a stroke of luck, as he was employed as a draughtsman by Sir Ralph Payne, Governor-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands, and Hearne spent the next three and a half years there in his service. The watercolours that Hearne painted for Payne, judging from the very few to survive, show in equal measure considerable technical facility and the in- fluence of Paul and Thomas Sandby. Although at this time in the Leewards there was rising disquiet about the institu- tion of black slavery, Hearne's patron Ignored this and, feeling that contact with a black was undignified, he 'designed a golden instrument, like tongs, with which he held any article which was given him by a black servant.'
Hearne was back in England late in 1775 never to venture abroad again, and for the next 30 years or so was profitably em- ployed as a topographical artist. In particu- lar he collaborated with William Byrne in publishing a series of engravings entitled The Antiquities of Great Britain These were a kind of counter-attraction to the Grand Tour and appealed to those who lamented 'the little regard paid to Gothic architecture of which so many beautiful models are daily crumbling to pieces be- fore our eyes' (written in 1768; plus ca change . .). The growing fashion for touring within Britain also ensured a ready market for The Antiquities. As Martin Hardie noted, Hearne's limited colour range was partly due to ,the sympathetic desire of a man who had been an engraver himself to make the engraver's task as simple as possible. He also illustrated books, including works by Goldsmith and Fielding, although his approach was too genteel to capture successfully the latter's robust humour.
Hearne was fortunate in having three leading connoisseurs and collectors among his patrons: Sir George Beaumont, Richard Payne Knight and Dr Thomas Monro. Beaumont said of Hearne 'a man of purer integrity does not exist', and Hearne was lucky enough to accompany Beaumont on a number of sketching tours in the comfort of Beaumont's carriage, whereas most watercolourists had to seek their subjects on foot in all sorts of weather. The watercolour illustrated here resulted from visits to the Lake District with Beaumont in 1777 and 1778.
In the 1780s Hearne painted a series of views round Payne Knight's seat, Downton Castle, near Ludlow. These watercolours, which happily still belong to Payne Knight's descendant, are amongst Hearne's finest works, showing his feeling for landrcape for once unencumbered by antiquarian motifs.
Dr Monro was a regular buyer of Hearne's drawings, while Hearne was the most distinguished artist to attend Monro's sketching academy. Here the young Girtin and Turner copied drawings by Hearne whose style influenced their early work. Later Hearne, like Beaumont, was to become a fierce critic of Turner, and the diarist Joseph Farington records in 1809 that Hearne, when discussing what would be a fair price for a painting by Turner for which Lord Essex had just paid 200 guineas, said 'For a full admirer of his picture 50 guineas, but for myself I would not give 15', a miscalculation on the grandest of scales.
Hearne died in 1817 but his livelihood declined during his last decade. His late drawings reveal a mixture of antiquarian topography and the influence of Gains- borough's pastoral landscapes with rustic figures. Hearne saw peasants in the same rose-tinted way as Gainsborough, for whom 'The peasant in rags has no filth, no idea of dirt or wretchedness is excited'.
David Morris has done Hearne proud in this book: praising with enthusiasm but not making undue claims for him. Although Hearne's work now appears somewhat tame, it is not fair to judge it by that of the succeeding generation of artists. If he fails to excite, he seldom fails to please, advanc- ing beyond mere topography to become, in Morris's words, 'one of the most subtle and accomplished architectural and landscape watercolourists of his time'. Although Hearne never attempted oils, he was perhaps supported in this decision by Sir Joshua's view that 'A man is not weak though he may not be able to wield the club of Hercules'.
Derwentwater from Brandelhow Woods', 1777-8
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