Fishing Boats, Hull

Hesketh Hubbard was born in London and educated at Felsted School. He studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art, Croydon School of Art, Westminster School of Art and Chelsea Polytechnic. By the age of 30 he had exhibited at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon. Becoming increasingly interested in print making, he started as an etcher, then becoming a noted proponent of the coloured wood cut and lino cut. He was founder and director of the Forest Press, a leading member of the Print Society and for a time master of the Art Workers’ Guild; and the author of over a dozen books, including Colour Block Print Making, Architectural Paining in Oils and A Hundred Years of British Painting 1851-1951. As a poster designer he worked for the Great Western Railway, Southern Railway and London, Midland and Scottish Railway. He was a member of many societies connected with painting and printmaking in Britain and overseas and exhibited widely, including at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Society of British Artists and elsewhere. In 1930 he sponsored the founding of a drawing club connected to the Royal Society of British Artists. Over the years it developed into a separate art society and was renamed in his honour in 1957. The Hesketh Hubbard Art Society still meets in the Mall Galleries. Many galleries in Britain and abroad hold his work. He lived in Croydon, Hampshire and later London. The present watercolour of fishing boats at low tide in Hull docks is related to the oil on canvas, Lobster Boats of c.1933 and now in the collection of Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.