Arthur Hacker

Artist Biography

Arthur Hacker was a well-known painter of portraits, genre, and large allegorical art, prints and posters. He also excelled in painting the nude. Arthur Hacker was the son of Edward Hacker a line engraver. He studied at the RA Schools, and with Leon Bonnat in Paris, where a fellow student was Stanhope Forbes. The influence of his French training was evident and stayed with the artist throughout his career.

Hacker was an excellent craftsman, but like his near contemporary the French composer Camille Saint-Saens was often accused of producing art, prints and posters which was facile. Hacker exhibited at the RA from 1878, his early works being mostly genre paintings. In 1882 he exhibited Pelagia and Philammon, at Liverpool, in a highly dramatic French style. The Annunciation, which was bought by the Chantry Bequest in 1892 was in a similar vein. As the public taste for his French influenced academic and dramatic paintings waned, Hacker established a highly lucrative career as a portrait painter.

He painted many society portrait art, prints and posters, including a number of sitters with artistic connections, including Sir William Goscombe John, C Dyson Perrins, and M H Speilmann. Hacker also painted London street scenes, often at night, or with rather misty effects. A Wet Night in Piccadilly was his Diploma Work in 1910. Arthur Hacker's wife Lillian was also a painter, and exhibited at the RA from 1909-1924.

Arthur Hacker Art, Prints and Posters Collection