Obituary of Sir Edward John Poynter

Sir Edward John Poynter (1836–1919) was an artist and President of the Royal Academy from 1896–1918 and Director of the National Gallery 1894–1905, but he was also a teacher and a lecturer. In 1875 he became Director and Principal of the National Art Training School in South Kensington, a post he held for six years.

From The Times, 28 July 1919

Death of Sir E Poynter: a great Victorian

We regret to announce the death of Sir Edward Poynter at his home at 70, Addison Road, W, on Saturday morning aged 83.

Sir Edward John Poynter, first baronet, President of the Royal Academy from 1896 to 1918, and Director of the National Gallery from 1894 to 1905, was the son of Ambrose Poynter, an architect, well-known in his day as the designer, among many other buildings, of St Katherine's Hospital, Regents Park. On his mother's side he was the grandson of Thomas Banks, RA, a sculptor of eminence, whose funeral oration was pronounced by Flaxman. The young Poynter was of artistic descent on both sides, and though neither of his ancestors was a painter, his love for architectural backgrounds and for a sculpturesque treatment of form may perhaps be traced to those inherited influences.

He was born in Paris on March 20, 1836 but soon afterwards his parents returned to London, and most of his boyhood was spent in Westminster, the family living first near Poets' Corner and afterwards in Queen Anne's Gate. Delicate health made his early education somewhat unsettled; he was for a short time at Westminster School and afterwards at Brighton College and Ipswich Grammar School, which, again for reasons of health, he left in 1852, spending that and subsequent winters in Madeira and Rome. As many of his pictures show, he had a good acquaintance with classical literature, and the intention was to send him to university but the accident of these winters abroad and a very pronounced inclination for Art caused the plan to be changed, and it was decided he should be an artist. In 1853 he met in Rome young Frederick Leighton, his senior by six years, who, after a full training in art in Italy, Paris, and Germany was at that time at work on the afterwards celebrated picture Cimabue's Madonna carried through the streets of Florence. The personality, the talk, and the example of Leighton had a great influence on young Poynter, then a youth of 17 and contributed much, not only to increase his enthusiasm for art, but also to form his style.

On returning to London he entered Leigh's well-known academy in Newman Street, afterwards working with Mr Dobson RA and at the schools of the Royal Academy. These were then in a very unsatisfactory state and it is not surprising a lad of keen perceptions like Poynter, who had breathed the artistic atmosphere of Rome and Paris, should have demanded something better. So in 1857, when he was just 20, he induced his father to allow him to work in the famous studio of Gleyre, who was maintaining, rather against the spirit of the time, the strictest traditions of Ingres and the French Classicists. Here among his fellow pupils Poynter had his lifelong friend George Du Maurier, and, strange to say, James McNeill Whistler and the life and adventures of the group in the artistic quarter in Paris have been immortalised in Trilby. For a time after leaving his master, Poynter set up a joint studio with Du Maurier, Lamont and Thomas Armstrong, afterwards so well-known for his work at South Kensington; and in due course after leaving Paris, he began to send pictures to the London Exhibitions. The first that was accepted by the Royal Academy was a little pen-and-ink drawing (1861) and this was followed next year by an oil picture of a scene from Dante.

His more important work at this time, however, was of that decorative kind of which he afterwards produced many important examples for the South Kensington Museum, for the Houses of Parliament, and for St Paul's. In these early years he was also a good deal employed, as were Millais and Frederick Walker, in those illustrations for 'Once a Week', which mark such an important epoch in the history of British graphic Art. This is as much as to say that already at five-and-twenty years of age, Poynter had already taken his place among the foremost group of young artists.

An Archaeological Trend 

As was the case with Leighton and the young Alma-Tadema, his early pictures showed a distinctly archaeological turn, and the first works of his which made a real mark had either Egyptian or early Roman scenes for their subjects. We may mention, for instance, the very impressive 'Faithful Unto Death' (1865), which represented a Roman soldier mounting guard in the midst of the lava showers in Pompeii. Two years later came the really great picture, the celebrated 'Israel in Egypt', showing a crowd of Israelitish salves, nude or semi-nude, dragging to its place a great stone lion for the adornment of an Egyptian temple. This fine and serious work, which was appropriately bought by Sir John Hackshaw, the engineer, at once placed Poynter in the front rank of the English artists of his time, and it may be recorded that it received the best of all advertisements in the well-remembered Punch cartoon wherein Tenniel turned the picture into his Disraeli in triumph; the Tory Sphinx dragged to his great position by an unwilling throng of slaves.

Henceforth Poynter's success was assured, but he was by no means content to rest on his laurels. In the following year (1868) he exhibited a picture, which, though not of such wide appeal, was artistically of quite equal importance, 'The Catapult', which was bought by the late Joseph Pease. (The Pease family were Quaker industrial property owners in North East England). The English nation knows its bible better than it knows its Roman history, and scenes from the Siege of Carthage tell less to them than passages in the story of the Pharaohs; but all who could judge a work of art as such found quite as much to admire in the design, the form, the colour, and the vigorous humanity in the later picture as they had in the earlier one. A few months after 'The Catapult' was exhibited Poynter was elected ARA, and henceforth pictures from him, generally of important size, became one of the features of the Royal Academy Exhibitions. He began to paint portraits, all of which showed the same elaborate care which had been displayed in his subject pictures, though it must be confessed that neither then or at a later time did he succeed in giving to his faces the animation which is the sine qua non of great portraiture.

For some years after 1870 his principal work was done for the late Lord Wharncliffe for whose billiard room at Wortley the two great dragon pictures adorn (Wortley is supposed to be the Wantley of the famous dragon legend), and by way of contrast the two classical pictures 'Atalanta's Race and Nausicaa' and 'The Maidens'. NB. Please note that all these pictures, a central part of Poynter's output were lost in the destruction of Wortley. PHR. The last of these was exhibited in 1879, and in the following year there appeared a picture, now in the Tate Gallery, which was always regarded by the artist with particular affection, and which may be said to represent his gifts and merits in the most complete way. This is the well-known 'Visit to Aesculapius', wherein Poynter boldly came forward as a painter of the classical nude, setting his figures in an admirable landscape. People were not surprised when this work was selected for purchase by the Chantrey Fund, and it was thus added to the permanent collection of this country.

Work on Portraits

It is necessary to go into in detail the history of Poynter's pictures after the Aesculapius, which marked the highest point of his accomplishment. Enough to say that for a whole generation after 1880 he was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy and in Pall Mall East; that his portraits are very numerous and that they included not only a number of soldiers and ladies, but also a portrait of himself painted by request for the Uffizi at Florence, and that the subject pictures may be grouped in 2 classes, the larger and more elaborate, such as 'The Queen of Sheba's Visit to King Solomon' and the more fanciful and purely descriptive pictures such as 'A Corner of a Villa and Idle Fears', 1894. The former picture painted in 1890, and soon afterwards acquired for the Art Gallery at Sydney was remarkable for its fine composition and for the magnificence of its detail, while the smaller and more in time works show the artist as a master of form, and as approaching though not quite rivalling Alma-Tadema in his treatment of classical draperies and architectural detail. Their fault is a certain lack of vitality in the heads and something approaching a failure in the representation of movement, as in the well-known 'Ionian Dance' (1895).

Sir Edward Poynter, who was knighted in 1896, made a baronet in 1902, and given the KCVO in 1918, was very much more than a practising artist. He was a teacher, lecturer, and a man of affairs. Moreover for over 10 years, like Sir Charles Eastlake before him, he combined the arduous position of President of the Royal Academy with the much more difficult post of Director of The National Gallery. It would probably have been better for his fame if he had been content to perform less multifarious duties, and certainly in his last-named task his administration was not as successful as it ought to have been at that very critical period. Poynter became Director of the National Gallery in 1894, in succession to Sir Frederick Burton, who, good work as he had done in the early part of his time, had held the post too long. When Poynter succeeded him the powers and discretion of the Director were much curtailed and he was no longer able to spend the annual grant on his own initiative.

Sir Edward Poynter's own views of many of the questions connected with the fine arts may be found in his 'Ten Lectures on Art', first published in 1879, which include some of the lectures which he delivered as Slade Professor and elsewhere. To these may be added his different addresses to the students of the Royal Academy dating from more recent years. Many critics have agreed that Poynter's lectures in their simple unadorned form and style, retain a high permanent value.

In 1866 Edward Poynter married Agnes, daughter of the Rev G B MacDonald, of Wolverhampton, one of three sisters. One of these is Lady Burne-Jones, while the third became the mother of Mr Rudyard Kipling. Mr and Mrs Poynter had two sons, of whom the elder, who succeeds to the title, is Mr Ambrose Poynter, the well-known architect, inheriting from his grandfather both his name and profession. Lady Poynter, who in early life was famous for her beauty, died in 1906.

During the late 1860s Poynter was awarded several decorative commissions for the South Kensington Museum, including the design for the metal grill and tiles in the grill room (Dutch kitchen) (1866-c1874). In 1868, he went to Italy to study Venetian mosaics, providing inspiration for the designs of mosaics for the south court and the apse of the lecture theatre, work which was only partially completed. Other commissions included part of a frieze at the Royal Albert Hall (1869) and a cartoon for the St George mosaic at the Houses of Parliament (1869).

In 1871, as the first Slade Professor at University College, London, Poynter was influential in introducing many principles of French art education into the English system. After his retirement from this position in 1875, Poynter became Director and Principal of the National Art Training School in South Kensington, a post he held for six years. During this time he published a series of books on drawing and a number of art history text books.

During the 1890s, Poynter became increasingly involved in public office. From 1894 to 1904 he was Director of the National Gallery, London, the last practising artist to hold this position. In 1896 he was elected President of the Royal Academy, a position he held until his resignation in 1918. He received a knighthood in 1896 and was created a baronet in 1902. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Reproduced with kind permission of The Times
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