Henry Tonks

Henry Tonks (1902)

Henry Tonks (born April 9, 1862 in Birmingham , † January 8, 1937 in London ) was a British doctor and painter . He was one of the first English artists to be influenced by the French Impressionists .

Life

John Singer Sargent : Henry Tonks, charcoal drawing, 1918

Henry Tonks came from a wealthy Birmingham family. After graduating from Clifton College in Bristol , he began his medical studies at the University of Brighton (1882-1885) and at the Royal London Hospital (1885-1888). Tonk received his MD in 1888 and got a job at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

He took his first drawing lessons at the London Technical Institute from the painter Frederick Brown, who urged him to change his profession. From 1892 he taught at the Slade School of Fine Art - the art school of University College London . His students included Harold Gilman , Spencer Gore , Augustus John , William Orpen , Gwen John , Stanley Spencer , Mark Gertler , David Bomberg, and Isaac Rosenberg , among others . He had a close friendship with James McNeill Whistler , Walter Sickert and John Singer Sargent .

During World War I , Tonks served in France and was a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps . As a doctor and artist, he pioneered plastic surgery . Together with John Singer Sargent, he was also appointed the official front painter and made a variety of war pictures. After the war, Henry Tonks was elected a member of the New English Art Club and later President of the Slade School of Fine Art , and held that post until his retirement in 1930.

Works (selection)

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  The Pearl Necklace , around 1905

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  Self-portrait , 1909

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  At the Advanced Dressing Station in France , 1918

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  John Singer Sargent painting , 1918

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  Standing figure , 1918

Others

With the »tonking technique«, named after Henry Tonks, drawings are drawn with as much contrast as possible with charcoal and then knocked away or smeared with a cloth. The density is reduced and you can now work out details with charcoal again.

literature

• Joseph M. Hone: The life of Henry Tonks . W. Heinemann, London [1939].
• Tonks, Henry . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 33 : Theodotos vacation . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1939, p. 277 .
• Lynda Morris: Henry Tonks and the Art of Pure Drawing. Norwich Gallery, Norwich 2007, ISBN 9780950824826 .

Web links

Commons : Henry Tonks  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Henry Tonks (English)