The Young Fishwife
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Research by Jaqueline Arundel
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Acc No 90
Artist Joshua Anderson Hague, RI, RBA, PRCA Artist dates 1850-1916 Medium oil on canvas Size 71.1 x 101.6 cm (28 x 40 in) Date painted unknown Inscr: signed Donor Margaret Mary Nicholson, St Annes Date donated 26 March 1934 Note: Came into the Collection as 'Scene on the North Wales Coast' See also The Fisherman's Cottage by Joshua Anderson Hague |
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ARTIST
Joshua Anderson Hague (1850-1916) was a landscape painter and watercolourist who specialised in quiet pastoral scenes, similar to those of James Aumonier (1832–1911). He was born in Rusholme, Manchester. At sixteen he went to the Manchester School of Art and studied under its Head, Mr Buckley (1868–1870). Hague became the leader of a group of young artists known as the 'Manchester School'. Nearly all these artists had been trained at Manchester Academy of Fine Art and they met at the Manchester studio of the self-taught, Joseph Knight (1837–1909), in the early 1870s. Knight painted how he desired and refused to conform to traditional Art School rules and this appealed to his young admirers. They were influenced by the Barbizon School of painters and by Israels, Mauve and Maris, and made a number of trips to Brittany between 1871 and 1878. The group was making a considerable impact in the mid 1870s and another of our Collection artists, Fredrick William Jackson (1859 -1918), who studied under Joshua’s brother, John Houghton Hague, was also drawn towards them, being influenced by their choice of subject matter and style of tonal painting. Around 1872–73 he moved to Crossen, near Southport. In 1877 he moved to Tywyn, near Conwy in North Wales, with his wife, Sara, whom he had married in 1875, and their four sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Anderson (Dick) Hague, was later to exhibit at the RA, RCA, MAFA and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. In 1881 at Plas Mawr, Conwy, where by now a considerable number of Manchester artists were living, Hague, along with Henry Clarence Whaite (1828-1912) and Edward Norbury, founded the Royal Cambrian Academy and became its Vice President. In 1884 Hague was elected a member of the Society of British Artists and in 1887 he became a member of the New English Art Club. He was elected to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1892. In 1889 he moved to Deganwy, where he spent the rest of his life. You will notice that our painting, The Fisherman's Cottage, Deganwy, was painted there. The scene in The Young Fishwife, which came into the Collection as Scene in North Wales, also looks like the same coastline. That same year he had a one-man exhibition at the Brasenose Club, Manchester. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour, Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, Baillie Gallery, Dowdeswell Galleries, New English Art Club and the Society of British Artists in London, as well as at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Cambrian Society, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. He often exhibited at the Royal Manchester Institution and in 1873 became a full member of the Manchester Academy, where he played an extremely active business role for forty-three years. In 1908 forty-five of his paintings were in a retrospective show at the Manchester City Art Gallery. In 1899 the art critic Maxwell Enoch wrote the following about Hague's work: 'He now paints with a delightful and delicate greyness, and has gradually become stronger in colour and more dexterous in handling. He paints in a manner that is absolutely his own. There is no landscape painter at present working in England who shows so much individuality in his work. The most simple subjects he is able to invest with a beauty and tone that is delightful.' Anderson Hague exhibited The Young Fishwife at the Royal Cambrian Academy's annual exhibition at Plas Mawr in 1893. |
REFERENCES
Hague, Joshua, (2015), Manchester School of Painters, available online @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_School_of_Painters Jackson, R, (2014), Fredrick William Jackson Art Site, available online @ http://www.fwjackson.co.uk/ Johnson, J, and Greutzner, A, (1980), Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge RCA, (2015), Our History, available online @ http://www.rcaconwy.org/our_history-5.aspx Wood, Christopher, (1971), Dictionary of Victorian Artists, Woodbridge |
