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William Lee Hankey
Near The Cathedral, Granada (1914)
Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76cm (25 x 30”)
Signed
Exhibited:
Ecletic Summer Exhibition
The Frederick Gallery July 2002
Cat. No. 1 where purchased by current owner. (Front ctover illustration)
€6,000 - 10,000
Lee Hankey is most noted as painter and etcher of French
Harbour scenes and studies of English country life. He first
studied at Chester School of Art under Walter Shroeder, then
at RCA under John Sparkes and concluded his education in
Paris.
Although Lee-Hankey lived for the most part in London,
keeping a studio in Chelsea, he often spent long periods
traveling throughout Europe and from 1904 onwards kept a
house in Etaples in France. Here he stayed for much of the
year and produced his main body of work. He returned to
England upon the outbreak of the First World War to serve
with the Artists’ Rifles.
He exhibited widely, at all the main London galleries includ-
ing the Leicester, Fine Art Society and Lefevre Galleries;
also at the Royal Academy, Goupil Gallery and ROI. He was
elected RBA and RMS in 1896, RI in 1898, ROI in 1909, RE
in 1911 sketching club between 1902-04 and a member of the
Society of 25 Artists and in the late 1940’s chairman of the
Empire Arts Council.
His work is represented in many collections in England and
abroad. The British Museum and Victoria and Albert Muse-
um hold examples of his work. His work was shown interna-
tionally, winning a gold medal at the Barcelona International
Exhibition and Bronze in Chicago.
“Lee-Hankey was one of the early 20th century group of
British artists, rather loosely described as English Impres-
sionists. Like their progenitors they too broke away from tired
academicism, seeking inspiration in the open air and painting
scenes of everyday life what Eugene Boudin described as “La
vie quatidienne”.
Apart from Sickert and a few others many of them have not
always received the critical attention they deserve, and this
picture is surely an example of work that goes far beyond the
mere representation of a picturesque scene, expressed with
lively colour and accomplished draftsmanship. Though mod-
est in concept and style it is something of a masterpiece, wor-
thy of inclusion in any good collection of modern British Art,
along side the Nashs, Nevinsons, Pipers, et al.
Cézanne spoke of “doing Passion, again after nature”. Lee-
Hankey follows the precept by his journal precision and or-
ganization with the compositional stresses and strains of clas-
sicism, but also with a delicate touch of English lyricism.
Note the subtle patterns of colour and shape, that delectable
grey shadows, the careful placing of figures and horse, cre-
ating almost effortlessly, it would seem a tangible sense of
space, just as Eugene Boudin could do. Then theres the un-
laboured surface texture, emphasizing the picture plain and
giving sensual pleasure. But above all is the light, not of the
Turneresque kind, rather more of the Venetian ‘vedute’Artists,
with sunlight dancing across the surface is an almost musical
sequence, expressing the artist’s love of his craft as well as the
scene before him”.
Yet for all that there is a sense of profound stillness, a dream-
like quality that gives the work an extra dimension. Who
could not respond endlessly to its charm.
S. P. June 2002
