A 'jewel' from Messum's Studio - Arthur Hacker's 'King Charles' Monument, Whitehall'

Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) 'King Charles Monument, Whitehall' mixed media on board 32 x 40 cm (12 5⁄8 x 15 3⁄4 in)

A ‘jewel’ of a painting, this evocative little study rendering a foggy London street scene in 1910 by Hacker captures the busy fashionable metropolis at the beginning of the twentieth century. His atmospheric evocation of London’s West End epitomises a British response to his time spent in France and the influences of the period which he explored and which placed Hacker amongst the leading British Impressionists.

'A Wet Night, Piccadilly Circus' RA Collection

Arthur Hacker was in the forefront of artistic development at the turn of the century and the present work is a mixed media study for the larger oil ‘King Charles’s Day’ which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1911 (no. 180), the year after Hacker was elected a full Royal Academician. It was one of three atmospheric London street scenes that he showed at that year’s Academy and the series marked a new departure in the artist’s work.

In a review of the RA show, The Studio called them “three remarkable tone and colour studies of London at night”.[1] These nocturnal views of London took both his fellow Academicians and the public by surprise. More forward-looking and inspired than his previous work these probably now stand as his masterpieces, with one of them A wet Night, Piccadilly Circus becoming his Royal Academy Diploma work and which is part of the Royal Academy's collection.

Above: pages from the 1911 Royal Academy catalogue displaying the three London nocturne scenes by Hacker - the present painting is the study for no. 180.

King Charles I, Whitehall

'King Charles Day' by Hacker

The present painting represents the statue of King Charles I on horseback that is situated at the southern end of Trafalgar Square, just at the top of Whitehall. Probably executed swiftly on the spot, the image evokes the foggy atmosphere of the wintry evening and the yellow light created by the gas-fired lamps. Hacker captures the warm haze of gaslight over a busy wet evening in a manner that recalls both Turner and Whistler in its abstract play of tone and suggested form.

The title of the painting 'King Charles’s Day' refers to January 30th, the day appointed within the church calendar to be observed as the day of the martyrdom of King Charles I. The title was used by high church Anglicans who regarded Charles's execution as a martyrdom. His feast day in the Anglican calendar of saints is 30 January, the anniversary of his execution in 1649.

Hacker was well established by the time he produced this work. He had trained at the Royal Academy schools for four years prior to a period of study at Bonnat’s atelier in Paris and further travel on the continent. Paris was alive with a spirit of modernity in the late 19th century. There, and in Europe, some artists looking beyond Academy practises and a multitude of movements encouraged individuality, such as plain- air painting and Impressionism and, whileHacker’s work shows telling influences from these dynamic times, his highly evocative style sets him apart from many working in British Impressionism.

[1] ‘Review of the Royal Academy show’ The Studio, 1911, Vol. LIII no. 219, p. 16

Further works by Arthur Hacker from the same period in Public Collections:

'Flare and Flutter: Piccadilly Circus at Night' Brighton Museums

'St Paul's Cathedral' Torre Abbey Museum

To enquire about the availability of Arthur Hacker's 'King Charles Day' and to arrange an appointment to view the painting either in our London gallery or Messum's Studio in Buckinghamshire,

please telephone +44 (0)1628 486565.

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