Edward Atkinson Hornel

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933) was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers, and foliage, with children.

He was born in Australia, of Scottish parents, and he was brought up and lived practically all his life in Scotland, at Kirkcudbright. He studied for three years at the art school at Edinburgh, and for two years at Antwerp under Professor Verlat. Returning from Antwerp in 1885, he met George Henry and associated himself with the Glasgow School.

Hornel and Henry collaborated upon "The Druids Bringing In The Mistletoe" (1890), a procession of priests bringing in the sacred mistletoe, gorgeous with polychrome and gold. The two worked side by side to achieve decorative splendor of color, Hornel boldly and freely employing texture effects produced by loading and scraping, roughening, smoothing, and staining. In 1893-94 the two artists spent a year and a half in Japan, where Hornel learned much about decorative design and spacing. Towards the close of the nineties his colors, while preserving their glow and richness, became more refined and more atmospheric, and his drawing more naturalistic, combining sensuous appeal with emotional and poetic significance. In 1901 he declined election to the Royal Scottish Academy.

In 1901 he acquired Broughton House, a townhouse and garden in Kirkcudbright, which was his main residence for the rest of his life. [ [http://www.kirkcudbright.co.uk/oldhighst/broughtn.htm Broughton House] ] On his death the house and library were donated for the benefit of the citizens and Broughton House is now administered by the National Trust for Scotland.

There are examples of his works in the museums of Buffalo, St. Louis, Toronto, Montreal, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Hull, Bath, and Liverpool.

External links

* [http://www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk/artists_a_z.asp?ID=66 Twenty-five images of his works, and details of books about the artist]
* [http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst1009.html Biographical entry, "Gazetteer for Scotland"]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/04autumn/holt.htm '‘The Veriest Poem of Art in Nature’: E. A. Hornel’s Japanese Garden in the Scottish Borders' by Ysanne Holt]
* [http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/14/ Broughton House, the National Trust for Scotland]

References