Arthur Hacker

1858 - 1919

England Arthur Hacker was accomplished in a spectrum of different styles and genres that were distinctively his own. Hacker studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1876 and in Paris from 1880-81 under the portrait painter Leon Bonnat. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1878 and his 1892 exhibit, The Annunciation, was bought for the Nation under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest. He was a founding member of the New English Art Club.

Alongside his late allegorical subjects, he produced atmospheric London street scenes such as A Wet Night at Piccadilly Circus, which was chosen for Hacker's diploma work for the Royal Academy upon his election to a full member in 1910. He also produced genre paintings inspired by the rural realism of Jean-Francois Millet. Furthermore, throughout his life, Hacker was in demand as a portrait painter of glamorous society women, dignified gentlemen, and fellow artists.