Herbert Arnould Olivier,R.I. (9 September 1861 – 2 March 1952), was a British artist, best known for his portrait and landscape paintings. He was an uncle ofLaurence Olivier.
Life
editOlivier was born inBattle, East Sussex,England, where his father Henry Arnould Olivier was a clergyman. His brothers were Henry (1850–1935), who had a military career, ending as acolonel;[1]Sydney(the father ofNoëlandDaphne), who becameGovernor of Jamaicaand laterSecretary of State for India;and Gerard (1869–1939), a clergyman (the father ofLaurence Olivier).[2]He also had four sisters.[3]
Olivier was educated between 1875 and 1877 atSherborne School,[4]apublic schoolinDorsetand in 1922 gave his paintingEaster Mornto the school. The painting was originally intended for a church in Italy but it was put in such a bad light that he refused to leave it there.[5]He studied at theRoyal AcademySchools beginning in 1881, where he won theCreswick Prizein 1882.[6]
Olivier exhibited extensively, including the Royal Academy starting in 1883, the R. P., the R. I. and theParis Salon.He taught at theBombay School of Artin the 1880s. He went toKashmirwith theDukeandDuchess of Connaughtin 1884. In 1885 he showed 66 of the paintings from his trip to Kashmir at theFine Art Society.These works were considered "effective, though hard and coarse in colour" by critics. He had a one-man exhibition at theGrafton Galleriesin 1908.
In 1917, Olivier was appointed an official War Artist and in 1924 he presented to the nation, for display in 'the new War Museum at South Kensington', a number of paintings, includingThe Supreme War Council(the original of which was given to the French Government and displayed in thePalace of Versailles),The Armistice Meeting,The Military Representatives in Conference,The Peace Signature Table,and various portraits. The paintings now form part of the collections of theImperial War Museum.Also in the museum's collection is a doodle that British Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd Georgemade on a blotter at Versailles, which Olivier retrieved from the negotiating table.[7]
Olivier was elected to theRoyal Society of British Artistsin 1887 and to theRoyal Institute of Painters in Watercoloursin 1929 where a major retrospective exhibition of his work was held in 1935.
He is mentioned in Mallalieu'sBritish Watercolor ArtistsandDavenport's Art Reference.He may have been the H. A. Olivier whose work was reproduced in 20 colour plates forThe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Historical and Descriptive,Cassell & Co. Ltd, London, 1908. His work and biography are published inThe Modern British Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture,Chamont, London 1964. In later life his work tended towards large ceremonial works using oils. He gave his painting,Lord Selborne and Bishop Gore-Browneto the Athenaeum Club in 1937 where it remains prominently displayed in the Morning Room oppositeDarwin.
He died inHayling Island,Hampshire.[8]
Gallery
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Portrait of Marshal Joffre, French commander-in-chief (1915) -
Dame Freya Madeline Stark (1923) -
Sketch of the Table in the Hall of Mirrors, at which the Treaty of Versailles was Signed (1919)
References
edit- ^Anthony Holden (1988).Olivier.Weidenfeld and Nicolson.ISBN978-0-297-79089-1.
- ^W.A. Darlington(1968).Laurence Olivier.Morgan Grampian.ISBN978-0-249-43970-0.
- ^"Reverend Henry Arnold Olivier",ThePeerage, Retrieved 18 January 2015
- ^"The Shirburnian War Artist & the Treaty of Versailles".The Old Shirburnian Society.27 June 2019.Retrieved10 October2020.
- ^Gourlay, A.B.A History of Sherborne School
- ^Brian Stewart & Mervyn Cutten (1997).The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920.Antique Collectors' Club.ISBN1 85149 173 2.
- ^"Doodle made at the meeting to discuss the terms of the Armistice, Versailles, November 1918",Imperial War Museum, Retrieved 30 December 2019
- ^Mallalieu, HuonBritish Watercolour Artists up to 1920: Volume II M-Z
External links
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