George Hemming Mason
Encyclopedia
George Hemming Mason was an English landscape painter of rural scenes, initially in Italy, then England itself. He was also known as "George Mason" or "George Heming Mason".
, Staffordshire
, the eldest son of George Miles Mason (1789-1859), and Eliza Heming (daughter of Major Heming of Mappleton, Derbyshire). His grandfather, MIles Mason, was a potter, and the pottery was afterwards carried on by his father and uncle (Charles James Mason) who invented the well-known "Mason's iron-stone china". His father, who graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford
, was a cultivated man, who retiring from his business in 1829, became a country gentleman, devoting himself to literature and painting. In 1832 the family moved to "Whetley Abbey", a mansion situated in the midst of a park, five miles from the Potteries.
Mason was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
, and from 1834 trained to be a Doctor under William Royden Watts, a surgeon, of Birmingham
, but abandoned medicine in 1844 in order to pursue a career as an artist. As a youth he was passionately fond of literature and of athletics, and he inherited his father's taste for painting. An early oil sketch of his exists entitled "Dummy's Turn to Play" in which he tried to embody a ghastly incident of the time of the plague. He was also art critic to a local newspaper.
in the autumn of 1845, and George took a studio there. Financial difficulties at home soon compelled him and his brother to fend for themselves, and he made a living painting portraits of the English in Rome, and more particularly of their horses and dogs, for which he had a natural talent.
Despite a serious illness and severe poverty, Mason's spirits never sank, and when the Italian war
broke out in 1848, he helped to tend the wounded. His brother Miles entered Garibaldi's army as a volunteer, and eventually became a captain. During the 1849 Siege of Rome, Mason and two fellow-artists, George Thomas (an accomplished illustrator who worked for The Illustrated London News) and Murray (sic), were arrested as suspected spies, and narrowly escaped death.
In 1851, Mason made a tour of the Sabine and Ciociara regions and subsequently spent much time painting cattle as the guest of a gentleman grazier of the Campagna
. Mason delighted in the Campagna, and produced a number of pictures there including "Ploughing in the Campagna", "In the Salt Marshes" (1856), and "A Fountain with Figures". When thinking out a composition, which often originated in some literary subject, he usually strolled the neighbouring country in search of particular forms and colours for the accessories. Sometimes a new subject would be thus suggested, as in the case of his "Ploughing in the Campagna" for which he deserted another work already begun.
Mason had many associates amongst the painters and architects who visited Rome, and when Frederic Leighton made the city his winter headquarters, he and Mason became firm friends. Giovanni Costa
was for many years Mason's constant companion in Italy. Costa, who in the early days of their intimacy thought Mason's execution childish, recognised from the first the beauty of the sentiment which characterised all his work. They adopted together a system, which they christened "the Etruscan", of preparing their pictures in monochrome before laying on their final colours.
Mason visited the Paris exhibition
in 1855, and although he greatly admired the work of Decamps
and Hébert
, his confidence that he could excel most contemporary painters was confirmed. In 1857 he is said to have made an income of six hundred guineas.
The exchange of the blue skies of Italy for the grey and misty atmosphere of England at first depressed Mason. His friend Sir Frederick Leighton stimulated him, however, to exertion, and Mason's produced his first painting in England - "Wind on the Wold". Thenceforward he found inspiration in the exquisite though subdued colours of the Staffordshire country, and there followed from his brush a series of idylls which stamp him as the greatest of the idyllic painters of England.
In 1863 Costa visited him at Wetley while Mason was painting "The End of the Day" and "Wetley Rocks". Afterwards they visited Paris together, and in 1864 Mason shifted his quarters to Westbourne House, Shaftesbury Road, Hammersmith
(London), so as to enjoy the society of his fellow artists, but he still passed much of his time at Wetley. At Shaftesbury Road he painted "The Gander", "The Geese", "The Cast Shoe", "Yarrow", "The Young Anglers", "The Unwilling Playmate" and "The Evening Hymn".
A fastidiousness, which increased with his years, was always characteristic of him. He altered the composition of "The Evening Hymn" after it was finished, and the exhibition of it was thus delayed for a year. "The Blackberry Gatherers" was twice repainted - first it was winter, with a hag gathering enchanted herbs, and a fiery-eyed raven on a bare branch overhead, and then he painted it as summer, before completing it as it now stands. A little landscape in Staffordshire was begun as an effect of early spring, then altered to summer, and eventually finished as a late autumn effect, when only the last few leaves were clinging to the trees.
(ARA) and moved to 7 Theresa Terrace, Hammersmith, where he painted "Only a Shower", "Girls Dancing", "Blackberry Gathering", "The Milk Maid", and "The Harvest Moon". During his last years his health grew feeble, and visits to Lord Leconfield at Petworth House, or to a country house placed at his disposal by the Duke of Westminster, failed to restore it.
Mason died, at his home, of a heart attack on 22 October 1872, aged 54, just after completing his largest, and in some respects his finest, picture, "The Harvest Moon". He was buried on 28 October at Brompton cemetery
, London.
The following pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy:
Early years
Mason was born at "Fenton Park" in the parish of Stoke-upon-TrentStoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke or Stoke town, is a component town of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England....
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, the eldest son of George Miles Mason (1789-1859), and Eliza Heming (daughter of Major Heming of Mappleton, Derbyshire). His grandfather, MIles Mason, was a potter, and the pottery was afterwards carried on by his father and uncle (Charles James Mason) who invented the well-known "Mason's iron-stone china". His father, who graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, was a cultivated man, who retiring from his business in 1829, became a country gentleman, devoting himself to literature and painting. In 1832 the family moved to "Whetley Abbey", a mansion situated in the midst of a park, five miles from the Potteries.
Mason was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School is an independent secondary school in Birmingham, England, founded by King Edward VI in 1552. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, and is widely regarded as one of the most academically successful schools in the country, according to...
, and from 1834 trained to be a Doctor under William Royden Watts, a surgeon, of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, but abandoned medicine in 1844 in order to pursue a career as an artist. As a youth he was passionately fond of literature and of athletics, and he inherited his father's taste for painting. An early oil sketch of his exists entitled "Dummy's Turn to Play" in which he tried to embody a ghastly incident of the time of the plague. He was also art critic to a local newspaper.
Life in Italy
In the autumn of 1843, Mason left England with his brother Miles on a trip through France, Switzerland, and Italy - the journey was mainly done on foot. They reached RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the autumn of 1845, and George took a studio there. Financial difficulties at home soon compelled him and his brother to fend for themselves, and he made a living painting portraits of the English in Rome, and more particularly of their horses and dogs, for which he had a natural talent.
Despite a serious illness and severe poverty, Mason's spirits never sank, and when the Italian war
Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states
The 1848 revolutions in the Italian states were organized revolts in the states of Italy led by intellectuals and agitators who desired a liberal government. As Italian nationalists they sought to eliminate reactionary Austrian control...
broke out in 1848, he helped to tend the wounded. His brother Miles entered Garibaldi's army as a volunteer, and eventually became a captain. During the 1849 Siege of Rome, Mason and two fellow-artists, George Thomas (an accomplished illustrator who worked for The Illustrated London News) and Murray (sic), were arrested as suspected spies, and narrowly escaped death.
In 1851, Mason made a tour of the Sabine and Ciociara regions and subsequently spent much time painting cattle as the guest of a gentleman grazier of the Campagna
Campagna
Campagna is a small town and comune of the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of Southern Italy.-History:The town, located in a mountainous district, gradually lost importance in the 20th century...
. Mason delighted in the Campagna, and produced a number of pictures there including "Ploughing in the Campagna", "In the Salt Marshes" (1856), and "A Fountain with Figures". When thinking out a composition, which often originated in some literary subject, he usually strolled the neighbouring country in search of particular forms and colours for the accessories. Sometimes a new subject would be thus suggested, as in the case of his "Ploughing in the Campagna" for which he deserted another work already begun.
Mason had many associates amongst the painters and architects who visited Rome, and when Frederic Leighton made the city his winter headquarters, he and Mason became firm friends. Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa , known as Nino, was an Italian landscape painter and revolutionary.-Biography:Costa was born in Rome...
was for many years Mason's constant companion in Italy. Costa, who in the early days of their intimacy thought Mason's execution childish, recognised from the first the beauty of the sentiment which characterised all his work. They adopted together a system, which they christened "the Etruscan", of preparing their pictures in monochrome before laying on their final colours.
Mason visited the Paris exhibition
Exposition Universelle (1855)
The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May 15 to November 15, 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.The exposition was a major...
in 1855, and although he greatly admired the work of Decamps
Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps
]Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was a French painter.He was born in Paris. In his youth he travelled in the East, and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature that puzzled conventional critics...
and Hébert
Ernest Hébert
thumb|220px|Self-portrait, aged 17.Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert was a French painter and academic.He was born in Grenoble and died in La Tronche. His painting Mal'aria was exhibited in the Salon of 1850-1851, and now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris...
, his confidence that he could excel most contemporary painters was confirmed. In 1857 he is said to have made an income of six hundred guineas.
Return to England
In 1858, Mason returned to England and married Mary Emma Wood (daughter of Edward Gittens Wood of Bayston House, Shropshire) on the 5 August. They settled back at the old family mansion, "Wetley Abbey" in Staffordshire, and went on to have two sons and five daughters.The exchange of the blue skies of Italy for the grey and misty atmosphere of England at first depressed Mason. His friend Sir Frederick Leighton stimulated him, however, to exertion, and Mason's produced his first painting in England - "Wind on the Wold". Thenceforward he found inspiration in the exquisite though subdued colours of the Staffordshire country, and there followed from his brush a series of idylls which stamp him as the greatest of the idyllic painters of England.
In 1863 Costa visited him at Wetley while Mason was painting "The End of the Day" and "Wetley Rocks". Afterwards they visited Paris together, and in 1864 Mason shifted his quarters to Westbourne House, Shaftesbury Road, Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
(London), so as to enjoy the society of his fellow artists, but he still passed much of his time at Wetley. At Shaftesbury Road he painted "The Gander", "The Geese", "The Cast Shoe", "Yarrow", "The Young Anglers", "The Unwilling Playmate" and "The Evening Hymn".
A fastidiousness, which increased with his years, was always characteristic of him. He altered the composition of "The Evening Hymn" after it was finished, and the exhibition of it was thus delayed for a year. "The Blackberry Gatherers" was twice repainted - first it was winter, with a hag gathering enchanted herbs, and a fiery-eyed raven on a bare branch overhead, and then he painted it as summer, before completing it as it now stands. A little landscape in Staffordshire was begun as an effect of early spring, then altered to summer, and eventually finished as a late autumn effect, when only the last few leaves were clinging to the trees.
Final Years
In 1869 Mason was elected an Associate of the Royal AcademyRoyal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(ARA) and moved to 7 Theresa Terrace, Hammersmith, where he painted "Only a Shower", "Girls Dancing", "Blackberry Gathering", "The Milk Maid", and "The Harvest Moon". During his last years his health grew feeble, and visits to Lord Leconfield at Petworth House, or to a country house placed at his disposal by the Duke of Westminster, failed to restore it.
Mason died, at his home, of a heart attack on 22 October 1872, aged 54, just after completing his largest, and in some respects his finest, picture, "The Harvest Moon". He was buried on 28 October at Brompton cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
, London.
Works
- Mason's three largest English compositions were: "The Evening Hymn", "Girls Dancing" and "The Harvest Moon". In the latter, the scythes cutting against the sky form a magnificent composition, but it is doubtful if any exceed in poetic sentiment "Yarrow", "The Cast Shoe", "Home from Milking", "The Young Anglers" and "A Landscape, Derbyshire".
The following pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy:
- "Ploughing in the Campagna" (1857)
- "In the Salt Marshes" and "Campagna di Roma" (1859)
- "Landscape (1861)
- "Mist on the Moors" (1862)
- "Catch" (1863)
- "Returning from Ploughing" (1864)
- "The Gander", "The Geese" and "The Cast Shoe" (1865)
- "Yarrow", "Landscape, North Staffordshire" and "The Young Anglers" (1866)
- "Evening, Matlock", and "The Unwilling Playmate" (1867)
- "The Evening Hymn" and "Netley [a misprint for 'Wetley'] Moor" (1868)
- "Only a Shower", "Three Studies from Nature" and "Girls Dancing" (1869)
- "Landscape, Derbyshire" (1870).
- "Blackberry Gathering" and "The Milk Maid" (1871)
- "The Harvest Moon (1872).
- At the Dudley GalleryEgyptian HallFor the Glasgow building see The Egyptian Halls.The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, was an Exhibition hall built in the ancient Egyptian style in 1812, to the designs of Peter Frederick Robinson.-History:...
was exhibited: "Sketch from Nature, Angmering, Sussex", "The Clothes Line" and "Landscape, Staffordshire, near Southport". - "Crossing the Moor" was in an exhibition held at the Cosmopolitan Club.
- In 1873 an exhibition of his works was held at the Burlington Fine Arts ClubBurlington Fine Arts ClubThe Burlington Fine Arts Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved, which was established in 1866 and was disbanded in 1952. It was based at 17 Savile Row....
- featuring many of his most charming pictures and compositions which had not been exhibited before: "The Return from Milking", "Wetley Rocks", "Wind in the Wolds", "Ploughing in the Campagna", "La Trita", "Love" and "Home from Work".
- Some of Mason's work was engraved by various artists including Harvest Moon by R W MacbethRobert Walker MacbethRobert Walker Macbeth was a Scottish painter, etcher and watercolourist, specialising in pastoral landscape and the rustic genre...
.
Further reading
- Williamson, George G. Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers (London: George Bell & sons, 1903) p. 296.
External links
- Mason biography (southwilts.com).
- George Hemming Mason (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911)
- Mason biography (Oxford DNb)
- Mason online (ArtCyclopedia)
- The Villa Borghese (1852 painting at the Tate GalleryTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
)