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Sir Hubert Von Herkomer
Hard Times & On Strike
An Exploration
Matthew J. Manfredi
Greenport High School
Greenport, NY
Realism, as it relates to art and literature, is defined as an attempt to describe human
behavior and surroundings, or to represent figures and objects exactly as they appear in life. The
term social realism is a form of naturalistic realism focusing specifically on social problems and
the hardships of everyday life. The movement of social realism began in the mid-19th century in
reaction to the highly subjective approach of romanticism. There are certain questions one must
consider when attempting to classify a painting into the social realist category: Does it address a
social concern, anything from poverty to revolution? Does it represent in a pessimistic or bleak
way? Does it criticize an establishment or institution? Does it appear truthful? Does it present a
down-to-earth image of the world or the hard truth with prettified accounts of the world? Sir
Hubert Von Herkomer was a realist dedicated to bringing to light these social problems through
oil and canvas. Herkomer’s paintings were figurative, narrative and realist in style. This paper
will explore two of Herkomer’s most famous pieces, Hard Times (1885) and On Strike (1891), as
well as look at the life of Herkomer and how his experiences have influenced his work and the
social realist movement.
Hubert Von Herkomer was born in Waal, Bavaria in 1849, the only child of a woodcarver father and an accomplished pianist and music teacher mother. All three left for America
in 1851 and lived briefly in Cleveland, Ohio before settling in Southampton, England, in 1857.
Herkomer received his first art instruction from his father, Lorenz, and later credited his father as
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being one of the most positive influences on his career, he later attended formal art school in
Munich and London. His early work often focused on poverty and distress. These works had a
profound influence on many other artists. Vincent van Gogh collected Herkomer’s art and
mentioned him often in his private letters.
As a young child, Herkomer was hindered in his education by ill-health and poverty
“Herkomer painted a number of pictures that revealed his sympathy for the poor and
disadvantaged, a characteristic fostered in part by his own humble origins.” (Edwards p79)
Herkomer was influenced greatly by the artist Frederick Walker, another social realist , who died
young leaving a lasting legacy. In 1867, Herkomer started a career as an illustrator for books
and magazines. He found most of this work boring, but as a young man with radical political
opinions, he was motivated by the news of William Thomas, a social reformer, planning on
publishing an illustrated weekly which came to be known as the Graphic. The Graphic was a
general interest magazine that published stories about all kinds of events. From wars and
political meetings to garden parties and concerts, it covered it all. The most significant
illustrations of its early years were full-page engravings of scenes depicting working-class life.
These included street markets, gin mills, factories, field workers, soup kitchens and workhouses.
In time Herkomer had much of his work published in the Graphic. Even though he was never
employed as a commissioned, full-time artist at the magazine, he credits Thomas with the
pressure he needed to be the best artist he could be. He writes, “In my heart I bitterly resented
(his) words, but they were the words I needed: they were the making of me as an artist.”
(Spartacus p.3) Herkomer also wrote of the importance of the Graphic to the social realist artists
of his day:
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“It is not too much to say that there was a visible change in the selection of subjects by painters
in England after the advent of the Graphic. Mr. Thomas opened its pages to every phase of the
story of our life; he led the rising artist into drawing subjects that might never have otherwise
arrested his attention; he only asked that they should be subjects of universal interest and of
artistic value. I owe to Mr. Thomas everything in my early art career. Whether it was to do a
two-penny lodging-house for St. Giles’, a scene in Petticoat Lane, Sunday morning, the flogging
of a criminal in Newgate Prison, an entertainment given to Italian organ grinders, it mattered
little. It was a lesson in life, and a lesson in art. I am only one of many who received these
lessons at the hands of Mr. W. L. Thomas.” (Spartacus p.4)
Some of Herkomer’s contemporaries also employed by the Graphic were Luke Fildes,
Frank Holl, Arthur Boyd Houghton, George J. Pinwell and Charles Green. The illustrations
produced by these individuals looked incredibly realistic, because of their talent and training,
unfortunately their realism was skewed by a tendency towards drama and emotion and a desire to
elicit a sympathetic response from the middle-class readership. In particular, Herkomer’s work
sprang from his deep sympathy with the sorrows of the humble and hard-fated humanity. These
men tended to stay away from the uglier side of poverty, which was represented by violence and
disease. Herkomer’s strong feelings for the working class poor sparked one of his most famous
works, Hard Times, 1885. It is through an exploration of this essential piece of Victorian art that
we will see the true aim of Hubert Von Herkomer.
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Figure 1-Hubert Von herkomer, Hard times, 1885
Hard Times was the first of several rural images that Herkomer painted in the 1880’s and
1890’s. The main characters of Hard Times was inspired by a group of laborers Herkomer saw
resting on a roadside on Coldharbour Lane near his home in Bushey. At the time, Great Britain
began to experience an economic depression in the early 1870’s, which got even worse in the
1880’s. Hundreds of workers were considered ‘on-the-tramp’ for the few jobs available.
It is said that Herkomer was to have had the seeds planted for Hard Times as early as
Spring of 1884. He noticed that a female student at his art school in Bushey was painting using a
‘tramp’ as a main character. He advised her to continue working but to use real tramps as well as
an ill child, and to position them under a hedgerow. Herkomer demanded as much realism for
his students as he did for himself. The family portrayed in Hard Times was a real family, the
Quarry family of Merry Hill Lane, Bushey. James Quarry posed as the unemployed navvy was
actually a gainfully employed laborer. James’ wife, Annie Quarry posed with their two sons,
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Frederick George was the infant at her breast and James Joseph who is leaning against her knee.
Herkomer’s scene of hopelessness caught somewhere in time along a long winding road was
actually carefully thought out and arranged. The background was painted on scene whilst the
artist labored in a glass hut built for him on Coldharbour Lane. “He captured on canvas the
natural effects of light and the low, cheerless tones of wintry landscape. The red roofs of the
Atkin’s farm buildings, now torn down, appear in the distance.” (Edwards p. 80) The
background was painted outside whereas the figures used were positioned and painted indoors at
the Herkomer Art School in Bushey. “They are finely detailed, in contrast to the broad
brushstrokes that describe the sweeping road and large expanse of sky and to the thick
encrustations of paint that build up the folds and furrows of the woman’s black dress.”(Edwards
p.81)
It is widely known that the husband in Hard Times is portrayed as the equivalent of a
Greco-Roman god in the form of an English laborer who is out of work, it is through this
portrayal we can see the influence of Walker in Herkomer’s piece. “Perceiving the worker in
symbolic terms, as a strong individual who, in a sense, embodied the values of the pre-industrial
past, brings to mind earlier depictions of this type: for instance, the shirtsleeved navvies in Ford
Madox Brown’s Work (1857) or George H. Boughton’s The Miners (1878).” (Treuherz p.182)
Herkomer’s motives were sincere in his ability to capture the essence of and sympathy for the
worker. Unfortunately, they placed him further away from his own struggles. The forward
placement of the worker’s tools in Hard Times represents the idea that strength will overcome
hardship. The position and posture of the husband represents hope as he gazes into the distance
down the winding road. The sadness on the face of the wife in Hard Times, can be interpreted
not only as dutiful suffering, but as an insight into the gap of male vs. female attitudes in
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Victorian times. The wife’s sadness is also a reflection of Herkomer’s portrayal of hopeless
dejection. The trend in Victorian painting was to add this male/female struggle probably due to
the movement towards female independence. “Despite its descriptive Dickensian title, however,
and its obviously sympathetic portrayal of the plight of an unemployed laborer and his family,
Hard Times is less polemic than allegory, concerned more with hope than destitution.”(Edwards
p. 82)
Figure 2-Hubert Von Herkomer, On Strike, 1891
On Strike (1891), is the second of Herkomer’s paintings we will explore. Just as the
father in Hard Times is portrayed as heroic the same holds true for On Strike. The sheer size of
the man is ominous, as he almost conceals his wife and children from view. The tension can be
seen in the man’s hands as they clutch his crumbled hat, and are matched only by his
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expressionless countenance. He stands as stiff and strong as the door-frame which supports him.
His wife is represented in an opposing fashion. She is sad as she leans on her husband and
clutches an infant in one arm as an older child looks on tearfully in the background. Herkomer
chose to portray the individual suffering of a strike rather than focus on the group/gang scene
that his contemporaries used. The man in On Strike, was modeled after Tom (Money) Birch who
worked as a gardener on Herkomer’s Bushey estate.
The Illustrated London News took notice of the domestic conflict in this painting: “On
Strike, a really strong study of a working man halting between two views of life-his duty to his
comrades and his duty to his family. Of the former motive we see only the sullen obstinacy of
the man’s face as he leans against the doorpost of his lodgings. His wife with the baby in her
arms, followed by an elder child, is urging the breadwinner to think of their hapless
lot.”(Edwards p. 34) Clearly the father, as portrayed in the painting, has made a choice to
support the cause of his fellow workers and sacrifice the well-being of his family in the process.
As in Hard Times, On Strike depicts the women as bearers of the burden further underscores the
male/female dichotomy that existed in Victorian England.
According to Herkomer scholar Lee M. Edwards: “On the one hand, the image of the on strike
worker is a negative one, for he threatens the security of the family, a sacred Victorian entity.
On the other, the monumental size of the worker, while related to contemporary stylistic trends,
also evokes heroic meaning. Yet the pointedly expressive face of the worker emphasizes the
stern actualities of his real-life situation. The shallow space behind him-the dark red brick wall
and black doorwell-compound the sense of his oppressed existence. On another level,
Herkomer’s image of the modern worker reaches out to a much larger issue-the cost of
industrialization and its disturbing human effect. (Edwards p.35)
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Herkomer always revered the historical aspect of the artist’s calling. He believed that it
was an artist’s function to “reproduce and interpret the spirit of his own age in characteristic
scenes for the benefit of generations to come.”(Edwards p.35) His passion was to portray living
history distilled through the mind of an artist. The year 1885 marked the end and climax of
Herkomer’s struggle to be successful. Soon after he reached the pinnacle of his success and was
rewarded with the recognition of the world in every area of art. It is in Sir Hubert Von Herkomer
that we catch a glimpse into the past through the eyes of the artist.
Bibliography
Artcyclopedia, Internet Resource, Artists by Movement: Social Realism,
1996, pp. 1-5, http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/social-realism.html
Charlton, George, The Slade School of Fine Art,
The Studio, October 1946, volume 132, pp. 114-121
Clement, Clara E., and Hutton, Laurence, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works,
volume 1, pp.348-350, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1894
Edwards, Lee M., Herkomer: a Victorian Artist,
pp. 78-83, Ashgate, Brookfield, Vermont, 1999
Edwards, Lee M., Hubert Herkomer in America,
The American Art Journal, 1989,volume 21, pp. 49-73
Edwards, Lee M., The Heroic Worker and Hubert Von Herkomer’s On Strike,
Arts Magazine, September 1987, volume 62, pp.29-35
Mills, J. Saxon, Life and Letters of Sir Hubert Von Herkomer C.V.O., R.A.: A study in struggle
and success, pp. 141, 152, 155, Hutchinson & Company, London, 1923
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p. 530, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1970
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June 2002, pp. 1-4, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jherkomer
Treuherz, Julian, Pre-Raphaelite paintings from the Manchester City Art Gallery,
Lund Humphries, London, 1980
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pp.180-184, Thames and Hudson, London and New York, 1993
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pp. 453-54, volume 14, Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1996
Illustrations
Figure 1-Hubert Von Herkomer, Hard Times, 1885
Oil on canvas, 33 ½” x 55 ¼”. City Art Gallery, Manchester
Figure 2-Hubert Von Herkomer, On Strike, 1891
Oil on canvas, 89 ½” x 49 ½ “. The Royal Academy, London