Henry Jamyn Brooks Explained

Henry Jamyn Brooks
Birth Date:1839
Birth Place:England
Death Place:Essex, England
Nationality:British

Henry Jamyn Brooks (1839–1925) was a British painter, particularly known for his pictures of meetings and events, in which many individuals are personally identifiable. He painted royalty, and portraits of civic leaders and military people, and was also a photographer.

Personal life

Brooks was born in 1839.

His son, Sidney Malcolm Wellbye Brooks (born 1874, Abingdon), was a member of the Anglican missionary organisation, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and was reported murdered in China, during the Boxer Rebellion, on 30 December 1899.[1]

Brooks died in Essex in 1925.[2]

Career

Among the organisations whose meetings Brooks painted were: The Corporation of Abingdon (1877–1878),[3] Reading Borough Council (1878),[4] the first meeting of London County Council, in the County Hall Spring Gardens (1889)[5] and the Royal College of Surgeons' Court of Examiners (1894).[6]

In 1886, his business address was 7 Trafalgar Studios, Manresa Road, King's Road in south-west London.[7]

His painting Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888 features sixty-six people. There are a number of notable contemporary artists in the work, including Sir John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, George Richmond, William Powell Frith, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Frank Holl, Sir Edward Poynter, Sir Philip Burne-Jones, and Sir William Quiller Orchardson.[8] Other notable people are critic John Ruskin (who was not present at the event), banker Alfred de Rothschild, and prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. It also includes a self-portrait.[9] In 1914, he recalled the circumstances in which the work was conceived:[10]

He donated the painting to the National Portrait Gallery in 1919.

On 28 February 1899 he attended Windsor Castle to present to Queen Victoria his paintings of her reception of the chairmen and conveners of county councils and the mayors and provosts of the United Kingdom.[11] The reception had been held at Buckingham Palace in 1897, as part of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.[12] He also painted Victoria, near the end of her reign, in a work called Queen Victoria's Last Ceremony, in which she was shown receiving Lord Roberts and his staff on their return from Africa.[13] [14] The painting was exhibited at Graves' Galleries, Pall Mall, in London in June 1901, following her death. The admission charged was one shilling.

29 January 1902 issue of The Tatler reported that Brooks was working on a 9x picture of the attendees at a first-night of Stephen Phillips' play Ulysses at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, which was to include some 300 portraits, including the Royal Family, nobility, politicians, and many other members of high society. He reportedly sent each of the people to be depicted a postcard on which they were requested to supply details such as hair colour, height and what they were wearing at the event.[15]

His work is in a number of collections, including the National Portrait Gallery,[16] the Royal Institution,[17] the Royal Air Force Museum,[18] the City of London Corporation's Guildhall Art Gallery, Reading Museum, the Hunterian Museum,[19] and Brasenose College, Oxford.[20]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: News from China. 28 June 1900. The Sydney Morning Herald. 7. 15 January 2014.
  2. England & Wales, Death Index, 1916–2007. General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office.
  3. Web site: The Corporation of Abingdon (1877–1878). Art UK. 14 January 2014.
  4. Web site: The Council Chamber, Reading, Berkshire. Art UK. 14 January 2014.
  5. Web site: The First Meeting of the London County Council in the County Hall Spring Gardens, 1889. Art UK. 14 January 2014.
  6. Michael Jeffrey Aminoff; Larry R. Faulkner. The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Looking Back and Moving Ahead. American Psychiatric Pub; 2012. . p. 331.
  7. Web site: S&SWM PR papers L201 – L400. 2013. Pitt Rivers Museum. 22 January 2014.
  8. Web site: Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924142625/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/private-view-of-the-old-masters-exhibition-royal-academy-1888-i. dead. 24 September 2015. Your Paintings. 14 January 2014.
  9. Web site: NPG 1833; Handwritten account, (1914), of the painting by Henry Jamyn Brooks. National Portrait Gallery, London. 21 January 2014.
  10. Web site: NPG 1833; Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888. National Portrait Gallery, London. 14 January 2014.
  11. News: Court Circular. subscription . 1 March 1899. The Times. 10. 15 January 2014 . InfoTrac.
  12. Web site: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. 15 January 2014.
  13. News: Court Circular. subscription . 15 May 1901. The Times. 5. 15 January 2014 . InfoTrac.
  14. News: Art Exhibitions, &c.. subscription . 15 June 1901. The Times. 2. 15 January 2014 . InfoTrac.
  15. News: Who's Who in a First-night Audience at Her Majesty's. 29 January 1902. The Tatler. 216.
  16. Web site: Henry Jamyn Brooks. National Portrait Gallery, London. 14 January 2014.
  17. Web site: Image collections. Royal Institution. 15 January 2014.
  18. Web site: Portrait of a Young Royal Flying Corps Officer. Art UK. 16 January 2014.
  19. Web site: The Viva. Art UK. 16 January 2014.
  20. Web site: The Head of the River. Art UK. 14 January 2014.

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