King Charles Monument, Whitehall - At Night

Arthur Hacker was the son of Edward Hacker, a London based engraver. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools between 1867-80 and at the Atelier Bonnat in Paris. Prior to being elected a Royal Academician in 1910 Hacker had been largely known as a portrait painter but he took the opportunity of his appointment to exhibit a group of four extraordinary nocturnes of scenes in central London. His Royal Academy Diploma work, A Wet Night in Piccadilly, (1911, no.28) was accompanied by King Charles’s Day (1911, no.180), Matinee Afternoon: Piccadilly Circus (1911, no.376) and During the Ballet, Alhambra (1911, no.633). All depicted the effects of artificial lighting on wet streets and its reflections on buildings. The present work is related to King Charles’s Day and shows busy passing figures and traffic around Hubert Le Sueur’s 1633 equestrian statue of the king, which stands in Trafalgar Square, facing towards Whitehall. King Charles’s day is 30 January and marks the anniversary of the regicide.