fl'v I. ' 1 ;.. i * *nnc r 1- •¦ IfMHIi « IN H -I r I 'in n fv rj^-rf '¦d&0^' ^i!r 'jLj-, j» Ka«*Jtri wBbIBPjS^'*^ ML^' p.' ; cJ-Ti S^^.'nn ¦.:^: :feM"^^''7 gl| IUU r •• "--lllll ff ^1 I ¦" 1 l.jTdl' J .1. -1 + 1.1 4 *¦ *¦ r rr "I .J. .-.- «?-._.;- . .- :;3I.-..-;L>-:';F':^^^^-J>:tr^e--4- - ¦' K- — y-j ' YALE N CENTER' Art THE HERKOMERS MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK ¦ BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO PORTRAIT OF MY .FATHER (From my Oil Picture.) THE HERKOMERS BY SIR HUBERT VON HERKOMER III C.V.O,, R,A., D.C.L., LL.D,, Etc. AUTHOR OF 'etching and MEZZOTINT ENGRAVING,' 'MY SCHOOL AND MY GOSPEL,' AND ' A CERTAIN PHASE OF LITHOGRAPHY ' MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1910 PREFACE A NARRATIVE SO largely autobiographical as this " Record of the Family Herkomer " can not escape a note of egotism ; a note the more pronounced in these pages by the rather unusual course I have followed of putting myself under the microscope for temperamental analysis. Given to the introspective habit — natural in the first instance, as well as early encouraged by my father — it could hardly be otherwise than that I should succumb to the temptation of self-dissection in this story. It remains for the reader to say whether I have passed the border-line of good taste. It would be affectation on my part to pretend that I have not been successful in life. But in this record I wish to bring out into strongest relief the moral and psychological assistance I have received from my father, to whom I owe such success as much as to innate idiosyncrasy. vi THE HERKOMERS He recognized the flaws in my character, and made them as non -active as possible, whilst he encouraged and fostered the pro clivities likely to lead me to the desired goal — and this with a wisdom that was as logical as it has proved to be far-reaching. I make no apology, therefore, for being obsessed by this love for my father, and if I have in any way given an adequate portrait of this unique man, I shall feel that a filial duty has been performed. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE My Father's Apprenticeship and Mastership . . i CHAPTER II Settlement of the Young Master in his Native Village ; his Emigration to America . . .13 CHAPTER III Sojourn in America, 1851 to 1857 .... 21 CHAPTER IV First Years in England: from 1857 . . . .31 CHAPTER V Early Years in England [^continued) .... 43 CHAPTER VI Early Years in England (continued) . . , -53 vii viii THE HERKOMERS CHAPTER VII PAGE Early Years in England [continued) . . , , 6\ CHAPTER VIII Journey to Munich, 1865 ...... 70 CHAPTER IX Munich, 1865 .82 CHAPTER X Southampton again — London ..... 9'^ CHAPTER XI Science and Art Schools, South Kensington . . 96 CHAPTER XII My First Sketching Campaign (1868) . . , .109 CHAPTER XIII Settling in London—" The Graphic " -133 CHAPTER XIV Bavaria, Romantic and Paintable . . . .159 CHAPTER XV Second Visit to Bavaria . , , . . -175 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER XVI PAGE England aT Closer Quarters 184 CHAPTER XVII "The Last Muster" ....... 195 CHAPTER XVIII Death of my Mother . . . . .212 CHAPTER XIX Mutterturm, Landsberg — Camping in North Wales — Portraiture . . . . . . .224 CHAPTER XX Death of my Wife ....... 241 CHAPTER XXI The Herkomer School — Portrait of Miss Katherine Grant (" Lady in White ") — My Marriage WITH Miss Griffiths 245 CHAPTER XXII Death of my Wife Lulu 257 ILLUSTRATIONS Ltti-enj:. nfe^k.o'wflif' face page Portrait of my Father. (From my Oil Picture) . Frontispiece Portrait of my Mother. (From myvvater-colour Drawing) 26 " After the Toil of the Day." (My first Oil Picture, painted at Garmisch, 1872) . . . . ,122 Portrait of Myself, with my two eldest Children. (From an Etching, 1879) 138 " The Last Muster." (Oil Painting, 1875) . . ,198 Portrait of Miss Katherine Grant. (Oil Painting, 1885) . 244 CHAPTER I MY father's apprenticeship and MASTERSHIP When my father was a lad, the medieval custom of apprenticeship to the various trade- guilds was still in vogue in Bavaria, and he was put to the trade of joiner (" Tischler ") in the regular way, although in his case with out premium, which unfortunately gave him an inferior position in the house of his master. The distance from our native village, Waal, to Munich is a little over forty miles, a twenty hours' journey on foot, with rests. Walking was the usual form of locomotion ; and to this day, in the south of Germany, distances are measured by "hours," an hour being equivalent to about three English miles. Such measurement is still to be seen on many a milestone. As my grandfather had also been appren- 2 THE HERKOMERS chap. ticed in Munich, he was acquainted with a modest hostelry, where father and son, foot sore and hungry, could rest for the night. The next morning, my grandfather presented the boy to his master, where he left him with the words " Sei ehrlich und fleissig" — Be honest and industrious. Let me first give some details of that interesting man, my grandfather, since I take him as my starting-point. Farther back in the family history, I have but the scant recollections my father still retained of his childhood. He remembered vividly, however, the misery he felt when, as a boy, he had to visit his grandparents, and was made to pray the livelong day ; for these poor old people were still direct sufferers from the Thirty Years' War — that terrible page in Germany's history — and lived in perpetual fear. My grandfather was by trade a plasterer ("Maurer"), by nature an inventor of high order. His chances for the exercise of this great gift were small indeed ; and when he left his trade to take charge of his little patrimony after the death of his father, his chances were smaller still. It was only in I MY FATHER'S APPRENTICESHIP 3 making and devising locks to cupboards and gates, which no one unacquainted with the secret could open, that he was able in any way to exercise his inventive talent, I should explain that his mother had the right to keep back one son from military service, and she chose him in preference to any one of her other sons, as they were all drunkards and gamblers. The horror with which those vices filled my grandfather was duly impressed on my father^ who in his turn never touched a card, and held drunkenness as a deadly sin. When my grandfather was about ten years old, he was made to tend horses through the night, in the open. Every now and again the horses would give a peculiar neigh, which meant that their nostrils had caught a stench that comes only from dead bodies. And there they were : human beings dangling from gibbets, on this side and on that. That is a grim picture : but fear was not in the boy. Yet these ghastly companions through the night made him think ; it was wonderment rather than fear that passed through his mind as he reflected on the scene. Whilst gazing 4 THE HERKOMERS chap. at the stars in the clear night he learnt — un taught — to tell the hour by their changes of position in the sky. This boy's inventive genius was first shown in a contrivance he made for shooting down the horses' food from the loft to the manger below — an arrangement in universal use now. Later on, when he was apprenticed to his trade, he was once sent by his master with a message to a silversmith. Whilst the latter absented himself on the business ofthe message, the boy was left alone, when his mechanical mind became interested in a chain that was in process of making. Without more ado he began working at it, and by the time the silversmith returned he had added an inch to that chain, of a workmanship equal to that of the master. My grandfather was nearly thirty years old when he learned to read and write. I possess a prize that he gained at the " Feiertagsschule," a book full of useful hints, moral, mechanical and domestic. It was in this book that in later years my father found a. recipe for con densing milk, of which I shall have occasion to speak again. I MY FATHER'S APPRENTICESHIP 5 There is no doubt that my grandfather instilled the love of things artistic into the minds of his sons, and did all in his power, as far as his limited means permitted, to foster this love. He was, as I have said, by trade a plasterer ; yet he was also a real artist by nature. There was always the " Drang " to do something artistic — yet what ? To satisfy this craving, he made those plastic groups of figures, with landscape backgrounds, of sacred subjects, so often seen in Catholic churches. He gave his boys tools, and set them to carve hands, feet, and faces for the figures. The draperies were of real fabric, which, after being dipped in liquid glue, were arranged in their proper folds and allowed to stiffen. Finally they were coloured, and embellished with gold borders. The " Nativity " was a favourite subject. The tumble-down manger, the animals, the shepherds, the Magi and the angels, all gave scope to artistic design. These pictures in relief, when finished, were presented to the church, and after being blessed by the priest, were accepted by the villagers as something sacred. When my father was four years old, a 6 THE HERKOMERS chap. famine, only less severe than that which had occurred in the century before, visited many parts of Germany, and the families in and around Waal suffered terrible distress. But the mother, by a fortunate instinct, gave her children boiled oatmeal (the porridge of our day), of which meal there was a goodly supply ; yet she wept as she saw her children eagerly devour the food that she thought unfit for human beings. That trouble once passed, the life resumed its calm routine. One is inclined to linger on this type of German village -life : a house with arable land attached to it — the freehold property of the family — with a garden of vegetables and fruit, all sufHcient to yield food for the year, should no disaster occur. A craftsman, clever and ingenious, with time on his hands to make many a little home improvement, with a wise and good wife, and clever healthy children around him — free from debt — with a God and a Church he believes in ; surely this is a picture not easily surpassed, of man's wants supplied. But I believe it needs the German character to gild such a life with the elevating influence of an ideal^ without which I MY FATHER'S APPRENTICESHIP 7 every life would become a mere existence. But to return to my father. It was the custom in those days — or I ought to say the law — that the apprentices of the combined trades should be taken in a body on Sunday to the three different schools : the general school (" Tagesschule "), the Sunday school (for religious instruction), and the drawing, school. They were marched through the streets to the respective schools accompanied by the police ; this was not for the protection of the apprentices, but for the safety of the populace, for that species of youth from time immemorial was known to be a little devil, and up to all kinds of mischief. The Government offered a medal for the best drawing done by an apprentice — no matter to what trade he belonged. My father showed such talent for drawing that the master was anxious for him to compete for this most coveted of all prizes, the one silver medal given in the year. But a difKculty stood in the way, and that was money. Better paper than that which was meted out gratis for the ordinary drawings in the school had to be bought : further, the rather expensive 8 THE HERKOMERS chap. item, Indian ink, was necessary. His father could give him no money, nor in any way subsidise him in the rather inferior position he had to take in his master's house as a non- premiated apprentice. He received of course his board and lodging, such as they were, and was taught his trade, or, rather, was allowed to pick it up as best he could in the workshop. He was put to much menial labour, however, which did not belong to the craft-room, but was of a purely domestic character, such as washing up dishes, cleaning the boots of his master and family, running on errands, and doing nurse-maid's work. Such a thing as " Trinkgeld " (tips) never came his way. Now that this system of apprenticeship has been revived in Germany, I am glad to find that governmental inspectors closely watch the masters, to see that the boys are not only taught their craft, but that they are not ill- used, or made to do work not belonging to their trade. This general protection was necessary in more ways than one, for neither workman nor master hesitated to give an apprentice blows on the smallest provocation. To this day cooks in Germany consider they 1 MY FATHER'S APPRENTICESHIP 9 have a right to smack the faces of their kitchen-maids for faults committed in their work. I had a German cook once in Bushey who was quite surprised when informed that if she struck her kitchen-maid, she was liable to be arrested for assault. That is only a survival of the way in which apprentices were treated in the Middle Ages. Well, my father could not compete for this medal without some pecuniary help. To his surprise that help came from his drawing- master, who supplied him with the necessary materials. The name of that generous man was Hanfstangl, a lithographer, and father of the Hanfstangls who are at the present day distinguished photographers of pictures. The competitive drawings my father made were done in " wash," with Indian ink, but on a principle of his own invention. He mixed four distinct tones, which he placed in such a way that each tone slightly overlapped the other, producing a perfect gradation from light to dark. He never corrected or altered : although clear, precise, and accurate, his work was distinctly sympathetic. These drawings — which are in my posses- IO THE HERKOMERS chap: sion — could not fail to make their mark, and the boy gained the medal head and shoulders over the other competitors. He was told that drawings of such pre-eminence, done by an apprentice, had never before been seen. The presentation of the prizes was made the occasion of a festival and a holiday. The masters of the various guilds assembled in the old "Rathaus," They marched in solemn procession to the big hall — preceded by a fan fare of trumpets — and took their seats accord ing to seniority. The apprentices of the various trades came up for their prizes in batches. Now, as there was only one medal given, and that for drawing, my father had to walk up alone to receive the coveted reward from the hands of the " Biirgermeister," who presided over the whole ceremony. My father told me it was the only occasion in his life when he " did not feel his legs " — owing no doubt to his mental excitement. From his apprenticeship he soon merged into the higher grade of " Geselle " (work man), and in due time started on his " Wander- jahre" — the freest and happiest time of his young days. I MY FATHER'S MASTERSHIP ii This skilful workman, with knapsack strung to his shoulder, swinging his " Guild-stick " (a special cane, denoting his position as a workman of a particular guild), and walking from Munich to Paris via Amsterdam— is a delightful picture to contemplate ! Strong and sturdy in body ; a mind keenly alive to the beauties of nature ; a conscience clear and unclouded ; a fancy that could dictate the course of his journey — surely no life could be more enviable. He always had enough money in hand to carry him on to the next place where work might await him ; and he indignantly refused to resort to the usual methods of begging on the way. The custom for Wander-workmen to give a " fencing performance " before houses, in order to obtain money, had not yet died out when he started on his wanderings. Such per formances were called " Fechten," and to this day you can hear the word used to denote begging. On his return to Munich, he made his test work for mastership. This work was said to be " unnecessarily good " for the pur pose of passing, and he was proclaimed " Meister " with honour. 12 THE HERKOMERS chap, i Thus he had passed through the various sta:ges of his craft — so beautifully given in the old German saying : Wer soil Lehrling sein ? Jedermann ! Wer soil Geselle sein ? Der was kann ! Wer soil Meister sein ? Der was ersann ! CHAPTER II SETTLEMENT OF THE YOUNG MASTER IN HIS NATIVE VILLAGE ; HIS EMIGRATION TO AMERICA My grandfather died soon after his son became master, and as the elder brother refused to take over the patrimony, it fell to the next son, my father, to take possession. The elder was a doctor, and a most skilful anatomist, whose many preparations of the human body are still to be seen in the Anatomical Museum at Munich. He finally settled in a small village where, according to custom, he had to combine shaving the peasants with his medical practice, which latter consisted largely of blood-letting. He was an exceedingly lively, daring, and reck less fellow, absolutely . without any sense of caution, which often got him into a tight corner, from which my father (who was the 13 14 THE HERKOMERS chap. only person with any influence) had to ex tricate him. On taking possession, the first thing my father did was to rebuild the parental home, transforming it into a Gothic house, which, though simple in design, was architecturally correct. He had studied that period, and admired and loved the Gothic beyond all other styles. The erection of this novel piece of house-building brought down on his head the criticism, " Those Herkomers always do things differently from other people." My father started straightway on the com mission he had received from the little com munity to make a new altar, in Gothic style, for the church. It was an important work for a young master, and he rose to the occasion. He was one of the pioneers in the revival of the Gothic, which had been ousted by that hideous, overcharged, inorganic Baroque, In the eighteenth century nearly all the churches of Germany had been filled with this repellent form of decoration. My father's altar was pure — if stern — in its Gothic, and was his work from first to last — design, carving, gilding, and colouring. I do II THE YOUNG MASTER 15 not remember his telling me of having had any assistance. The altar is there to this day — the pride of the villagers, and the chief attraction of the church. Being now possessed of property, my father was permitted by the law to marry. The girl he loved, and made his wife, was Josephine Niggl, the daughter of a schoolmaster in a village not far distant from Waal (Denklingen). In all villages and small towns in Germany church music is conducted by the school master ; and to this day he has to pass his examination in music before he can get an appointment. It follows, therefore, that in the education of a schoolmaster's children music forms an important item. From the mother's side all my relatives have been musicians, and several of my cousins have become very dis tinguished pianists, A couple of years after my father's marriage — that is, in 1849 — I was born. My father was still working at his altar when the new born babe was brought in the arms of the proud old grandmother to the church for baptism. The young master watched the ceremony as he stood on the scaffolding, but 1 6 THE HERKOMERS chap. before the child was taken from the church he descended to have a peep at the little bit of humanity — his son, who was to mean so much to him in after-life. The strangely prophetic words he uttered then have been fulfilled : " This boy shall become an artist, and my best friend," It was fortunate that my father in sisted on the name of Hubert being given me, as the custom was to name a child after his god-father, who in my case had the name of Xavier. Imagine going through the world with such a name ! To my father, St. Hubertus suggested the romanticism of the forest, and the German pine-forest was to him the origin of Gothic architecture. Abortive though it was, the revolution of 1 848 had shaken Germany to the core. From that period, and for many years following, every man who had any feeling for freedom found Germany intolerable ; and this occasioned a great exodus of the best and strongest characters to what was universally considered the land of promise and freedom, America. It was to be expected that a man of my father's temperament, one of such independent think ing, such stern rectitude, and such liberal II SETTLEMENT & EMIGRATION 17 sympathies, should be influenced by the trend of thought that brought about a rising of the people against tyranny and injustice. The thought of emigrating, and beginning life again in the New World, haunted him. He became more and more restive, and listened less and less to the well-meaning neighbours, who tried to dissuade him from taking such a step. The strongest influence against the re solve to leave his home came from his most important and appreciative patron, who said to my father : " Such a man as you should not emigrate, for you leave Germany the poorer by your absence." This was Fiirst von der Leyen, whose castle in Waal is still in the possession of his descendants. But a letter from my father's brother, John, who had al ready crossed the ocean, finally settled the matter, and the die was cast. The German citizenship was formally given up, the home sold, and the Fatherland left for the Great Unknown. The few steamers that crossed to America in those days did not, so far as I am aware, take emigrants, but if they did, the fare must have been prohibitive. It was the sailing- 1 8 THE HERKOMERS chap. vessels that carried the best blood of Germany to the New World. The modern emigrant is a pampered creature. He crosses the ocean in the largest and best steamers afloat ; he is treated with consideration, has a good bed, good food without stint, and arrives at his destination in six days. The sailing-vessel in which we crossed took six weeks ! Think of it ! six weeks without seeing land ; six weeks living on salt meat, with a small amount of bread, and a cruelly small quantity of drinking- water. My father had forestalled such eventualities by condensing a quantity of milk before starting — a process he had read of in an old book of practical advice, already referred to as the prize my grandfather obtained in the " Feiertagsschule," This condensed milk he sealed in tins much in the way in which it is now universally sold. With the small amount of drinking-water allowed daily, the mother and child received a nourishment without which perhaps neither would have reached the American shore alive. During those six weeks the devoted mother, ill as she was, never let me out of her arms. But there is an end even to a voyage across the Atlantic in II SETTLEMENT & EMIGRATION 19 a sailing-vessel ; and the spirits rose high when those long-enduring emigrants set foot on land. It was New York at last ! Alas, there was no protection for such emigrants, no authority to save them from swindlers, who took every advantage of the " greenhorns " (as they were called), particularly of their not knowing a word of English ; and, as it happened, hardly had my father stepped on to the quay when a couple of ruffians tore from his grasp the box he was carrying, and one of them mounted it with revolver in hand, threatening to shoot my father if he did not pay so and so many dollars. It needed no understanding of the English language \o comprehend the meaning of such an action, and it was not until my father had paid the sum demanded that he was allowed to pro ceed with his property to a lodging, where robbery took another, but equally unpleasant, form. A few years after this date the once popular concert-room " Castle Gardens," where Jenny Lind made her debut, was converted into a temporary asylum to give emigrants a pro tection from sharpers ; and thence they were 20 THE HERKOMERS chap, ii despatched to the West, where their labour was in demand. The New World — the Land of Promise, had been reached ! All was as strange to the man and his wife as the language spoken around them. Many and bitter were the qualms of regret at having left the home in Germany ; but the step had been irrevocably taken, and the consequences had to be endured. CHAPTER III SOJOURN IN AMERICA, 1851 TO 1857 The events of the six years' sojourn in the United States have been brought to my know ledge in a fragmentary way by my parents, as I was too young to observe much for myself. There are, however, some definite impressions left on my memory. From what my parents told me, neither the Germans nor the Irish at that period were in harmony with the Americans, and the former were always designated as " Dutch " (used as a word of opprobrium), which was no compliment to the early settlers who came from Holland, and whose descendants at the present day are proud of their ancestry ; many a young man is introduced to you in modern times as belonging to one of the "oldest families " in America. The Germans held together, talked and disputed over their 21 22 THE HERKOMERS chap. home politics, brewed their own Lager beer, established their " Turnverein," and, in fact, kept up all their German habits of life. There are quarters now in New York where you do not see an English name over a shop, or hear an English word spoken in the street. I have a distinct recollection of our home in Cleveland. We occupied the first floor of a large building which was built in the shape of a flat-iron, and was known as " The Flat- iron Block." My father and uncle had one rpom for their work — the largest in the flat, and my mother established herself in one of the smaller rooms for music-teaching. There were two or three other rooms, and there was a kitchen. My recollection is of sparsely furnished rooms ; of the terrible heat on summer nights, when we slept on the bare floor in the vain hope of getting a little cool ness ; of the exasperating bites of stinking bugs (the more aristocratic flea, not being indigenous, was hardly ever met with) ; of the terrible cold in winter — when we slept between straw mattresses to get warm ; and of the snow that beat in through the im perfectly made window-sashes, and " sifted " Ill SOJOURN IN AMERICA 23 half across the floor — a grim contrast to the comforts that all classes have at their command in modern America. The Flat-iron Block was built of brick, but the great majority of houses, at least those of the working classes, were of wood. The latter had the one advantage of being easily moved to a different part of the town. I have a clear recollection of a house of this kind, fully furnished, with the family living in it uninterruptedly, being pulled through the streets, and it was done in this way : a windlass, worked by a horse, was fixed into the ground some fifty yards from the house, and drew the house, by means of a rope, gradually up to it. Then the windlass was moved on another fifty yards ; and the process was repeated until the new destination had been reached. It was only necessary to place such houses on wheels. But in modern times, for the removal of big houses built of stone, the whole structure is made to move on steel balls after it has been raised to the level ofthe road. During those six years I have no recollec tion of being taught to read or write, but in music my mother soon found an apt, though 24 THE HERKOMERS chap. unwilling, pupil in me ; and at the age of five years I performed a solo on the piano at one of her pupil-concerts. In the workshop of my father and uncle I was allowed to potter, play, or work, as I chose. The following description of me at that age is what I have gathered from my parents : a round face, dark complexion, with small but firm-set mouth, big black eyes, a shock of un ruly hair, which was occasionally cut by my mother in the good old German fashion, by placing a pudding- dish inverted on to my head, and then cutting all the hair that projected beyond the rim, straight around from ear to ear (a form of hairdressing, by the way, affected by modern French art-students). Of an excessively restless nature, and always on the go — through a superabundance of energy that was ever getting me into mischief — I must surely have been a pickle ! During those early years my father showed apparently but little interest in me, and I was placed under the entire charge of my Uncle John, with whom I slept. But I think I can reconcile that attitude of my father towards me with the touching devotion of the later Ill SOJOURN IN AMERICA 25 years. He was waiting for the dawn of the artist and the friend that was to be. Moreover, the new life in that strange (and to him) unsympathetic country, where endless things jarred on his artistic and romantic nature, made him taciturn and stern. I certainly feared him, and clung with my little heart to Uncle John, who was so gentle and so loving to me : even my mother was not so much to me then as my uncle. This good uncle, be it told, played the guitar (by ear) and sang German songs, of which he taught me the simpler ones ; these I could sing after him very readily, and then, with a little repetition, as solos to his accompaniment, before I was four years old. I have now a picture in my memory, of sitting on my uncle's knee in that warm kitchen on Christmas Eve, awaiting a knock at the door to signify that Santa Claus had brought the Christinas-tree and placed it in the living-room, to which I had been refused access for some hours previously. Even at that early age I seemed to have had an eye to effect, for I wanted to be even with this old Santa Claus, and to give him a surprise. I 26 THE HERKOMERS chap. proposed to sing a song to the uncle's accompaniment on the guitar, which I felt sure Santa Claus could hear as he passed the door. But a loud rap at the door abruptly stopped the song, and a rush was made to the room where, in German fashion, a Christmas- tree was set up, with candles burning from the branches — only candles, mark you, with none of the gewgaw stuff with which we now overcrowd a Christmas-tree. Underneath the tree were spread some eatables, such as cakes and nuts, and the present I had so longed for : thin boards, out of which I could cut various things with a fret-saw. And, oh, the sweet smell of spruce needles as they caught the flame of a candle — which to this day is a joy to me ! On such occasions my father would unbend, and enjoy it all with us ; indeed, he took the initiative in the arrangements. But it was not only for the little boy that a Christmas-tree was put up ; it was to warm the hearts of the elders, for it was Germany, was this little tree ! It was the emblem of the home they had left ! I remember my mother weeping through her smiles, as she took me lovingly on to her lap. PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER. (From my Water-colour Drawing.) Ill SOJOURN IN AMERICA 27 There was little chance for the father and uncle to show their craftsmanship, as in the 'fifties America was without artistic taste ; and the two brothers had to undertake anything and everything that came to hand ; life-sized effigies, carved in wood, for figure-heads to ships ; great brackets for the outsides of houses, also carved in wood, afterwards to be covered with sand to appear like stone. I also clearly remember their carving the face and hands for a Punchinello, which greatly excited me. They even undertook to paint portraits, and my uncle had a great success with a portrait of a baby, owing to the happy thought of showing the " cunning " little foot peeping out from under the little skirt. My uncle had a great gift for likeness-drawing, and made some charming pen -portraits of officers whilst he was serving his six years in the army in Germany. He was greatly in demand for these portraits, which augmented his small pay as a private; but to paint portraits in oils without practice or training is a much more serious undertaking. Photo graphy, which had not yet progressed beyond the daguerreotype stage, was only occasionally 28 THE HERKOMERS chap. available. Then both my father and his brother had erroneous ideas about the painter's art, believing that the secret lay in the ground upon which one painted, or in the method of under-painting. So they were always experi menting, painting little heads (without nature, of course) first on one kind of ground, then on another, each being differently prepared ; one head was under -painted green, another red, and so on. These experiments were hung out to dry in the sun, giving quite a decorative effect to the outside of the house. Then came varnishes and oils to prepare ; and, needless to say, they ground their own colours, which they put into little bladders, with the ends tied up with string, an arrange ment which has been in use from the earliest times when oil-colours were first used. This mode was only abandoned when the modern metallic tube was introduced. Lest my reader should wonder how these colours in a bladder, so tied up, could be squeezed on to the palette, I must explain that the bladder had always to be pricked with a pin, through which little hole the paint was pressed out. How my mother obtained pupils, how she Ill SOJOURN IN AMERICA 29 learnt the English language, and what her special trials were, is not very clear in my memory, for I had not been told much in connection with her life at that time. That she obtained many pupils before long was not to be doubted, for I possess two or three daguerreotypes in which she is seen seated in the centre of a large group of girls,, her pupils, with myself by her side. One interesting fact, however, I was told, that she received payment for her teaching of the earliest pupils in kind, and not in money ; and this ranged from bags of potatoes to the mending of our boots. Judging, however, from the entries in her books, in which she put down every penny she had earned, from the time she settled in America to the time when I persuaded her to cease teaching, it could not have been long before she received cash for her lessons in music. She gave her yearly public concert with her pupils, in which, as I have already stated, I figured as a performer at the age of five years. Most of the lessons my mother gave necessitated her attendance at the pupils' houses. One day, in one of those viciously 30 THE HERKOMERS chap, iii hot summers, my mother was brought home unconscious, suffering from sunstroke. It was a most serious attack, one from which, I may say, she never completely recovered to the end of her days. As for myself, I had grown but little physically, although mentally I had advanced. But it was an advancement that came from a state of neurosis, for I was an over -wrought nervous boy, and gave my parents not a little anxiety. What with my mother's impaired health, and my nervous state, my father felt it his duty to remove to some gentler climate, and decided to leave America and settle in England. CHAPTER IV FIRST years in ENGLAND : FROM 1857 How my father's resources stood at the end of his six years' sojourn in America I cannot say, for such details were not told me. Knowing the work he had had to accept, I am prepared to admit that they could not have been in a particularly flourishing condition. However, there was evidently enough money to undertake the journey to England and to pay the initial expenses of a settlement in a new country. The ocean was this time crossed in a steamer, but I remember nothing of this journey beyond the particular smell of that steamer. I must have had rather an abnormally sensitive nose, for I had often been able to identify the owners of certain gloves that pupils left in my mother's music-room. Probably I inhaled the peculiar redolence of the pupils, because I was jammed in 31 32 THE HERKOMERS chap, between two of them at a piano in a six- hand piece — a very favourite form of showing off the skill of pupils in those days. It was not a happy position for me, for those were the days of crinolines, which practically sub merged me in their spreading capacity ; and well I remember pushing down, on either side, the projecting flounces with my elbows whilst playing the middle and most difficult parts of the various pieces. There was no intention at first, I believe, of our remaining in Southampton ; and before anything was decided, my father thought he would like to see London. We therefore made the journey to London for sight-seeing, and found some lodgings — a cheap tavern kept by a German — in a little alley out of Soho Square. It is curious that, strong as some of my early impressions are of events before we left America, this visit to London has left absolutely nothing in my memory, except the hoarse roar of the traffic, unknown in these days of wood-pavements. On our return to Southampton, my father decided to stay in that town, simply on the premise that the people were well-dressed, that is to say. IV FIRST YEARS IN ENGLAND 33 in comparison with the Americans of the same class. This, he argued, must mean affluence, and affluence, in an old country like England, must mean a taste for the arts. It was not long before he was disillusioned, for he soon came to know that the people spent most of their money on their appearance, which left nothing for any expenditure in the arts, even if they had had the taste for things artistic, which, to his disadvantage, he found they did not possess. The real story of my life begins from this date ; the story of the development of a temperament made for a stormy exist ence, a temperament that ran to extremes in all things, with abnormal ambition and abnormal energy, but handicapped by poverty, as well as by a mental defect — the want of application. Those characteristics that I described in the small boy in America in creased in their intensity with the added years, and if I had not had such a wise, considerate, and understanding guide as my father became to me, I dread now to think what turn my idiosyncrasy might eventually have taken. 34 THE HERKOMERS chap. If things and events left but imperfect impressions on my mind before this date, it was within a few months of our settling in Southampton that my mind took in all that happened, and the potential meaning of these happenings. Thus the struggles of my parents against adverse circumstances have been "in dented" in my memory, never to be wholly erased. If America was without artistic taste in the 'fifties, England, with less excuse, was little better. Should my reader be old enough, he will remember that the absence of artistic taste in the applied arts was general through out this country. There was no carpet that was not outrageous or vulgar in pattern and garish in colour ; no wall-paper that was not inartistic or downright hideous ; and no ornaments for the mantelpiece that were not childish. Flowers made of feathers, fruit made of wax, both sacredly kept under glass covers, were the fashion. There was of course the ubiquitous antimacassar ; and a material for the covering of chairs and sofas, made of horsehair, was considered the height of style. In my motoring about the country I have IV FIRST YEARS IN ENGLAND 35 still found this kind of furniture in little wayside inns. Well, after our brief London visit, having decided to stay in Southampton, my father took a house in a small street, Windsor Terrace ; he bought some second-hand furniture, just sufficient for the time being, as he intended to make something artistic for the home. His first work was to paint an artistic design on a wire-gauze screen, which was to cover the lower half of the window facing the road. On this screen — which he decorated with scrolls that included little figures playing on musical instruments — he wrote the words, " Madame Herkomer, Teacher of Music." For my father's work a little back room was arranged, and it was in this room that I received my education, at the bench of the unique man who became my teacher, my guide, and my friend. My father felt it imperative to produce a specimen of his work, in order to show his skill as a carver. He therefore made a Gothic writing-desk, in the form of a cabinet. When finished, he offered it to the one firm in the town that had to do with the decoration and furnishing of 36 THE HERKOMERS chap. houses. But they would not buy a piece of furniture so different in style from the commercial article demanded by the public. They did the next best thing, however, and placed it in their shop-window for exhibition. The price my father asked for this masterpiece of craftsmanship was orA^j Jive pounds. But it remained in the window for weeks without bringing so much as an offer. Another painful surprise awaited my father when he settled in England, as he found that there was but little less prejudice against foreigners than in America. My mother certainly suffered from this prejudice, for she found it difficult to get pupils. It was not until it became known what a gift she possessed for teaching, and what an un bounded love she had for young people, that they came in greater numbers to her. Even I, as a boy, was under this bane of prejudice, and I well remember a horse-dealer and job master — whose stables were at the end of the street — who never failed when he met me to call me such names as " Dutchman," " Foreigner," " Roman Catholic," " Brigand," « Vagabond," " Half-caste," etc. IV FIRST YEARS IN ENGLAND 37 Months were passing, and the little capital in hand was reaching its lowest ebb. With few pupils for my mother, and no work for my father, things looked black indeed. I, too, gave my parents a great deal of trouble. It was not from wilful disobedience — as I now see it — that I was so unmannerly ; it was not from want of love for father and mother : it arose from inordinately high spirits, com bined with excessive energy, with insufficient opportunity to work them off. In the desperate way I ran and jumped — when playing with the other boys — I tore up the soles of my boots, and tore the very clothes from my back. All the remonstrance — even chastisement — I received could not keep me within bounds ; and my violence of temper did not make it the easier for my parents to deal with me. My clothes were now mostly past mending ; therefore — in addition to other troubles — a certain inevitable expense, that decency demanded, was staring my parents in the face. This was not a trifling incident, as it is only in modern times that cheap ready- made clothes have been obtainable for boys. 38 THE HERKOMERS chap. In those days clothes were dear, and always meant a formidable item of expenditure to a family in our circumstances. Yet something had to be done. Of money in hand, there was barely enough for rent and food. The only alternative was to convert something already in our possession to this use. Now, it so happened that my father had a cloak of good cloth — a garment he had acquired when he became a master-craftsman in Germany ; it was a possession he prized and loved. Often have I heard him sing a folk-lore song, in which an old soldier of the Thirty Years' War extols the virtue of his cloak — the many campaigns they had been through together, and the friendly warmth that cloak had given him in many a wintry night. Schier dreissig Jahre bist du alt, hast manchen Sturm erlebt. Hast mich wie ein Bruder beschiitzet, Und wenn die Kanonen geblitzet, Wir beide haben niemals gebebt. There was no help for it : that beloved cloak had to be sacrificed to furnish the material for a suit that would again make me look respectable. It was given by my father IV FIRST YEARS IN ENGLAND 39 without a murmur. He remarked that he could dispense with it if he walked a little more briskly when he took his daily con stitutional after dark — for he had no overcoat to replace that garment. Then came the season of Christmas, which, in England of all countries in the world, is that of goodwill to men. But it found our home joyless. Boy as I was, and wildly as I seem to have behaved, that joylessness, in some way or other, burned itself into my very being. The pity of it all has never left my memory. But when matters seemed at their worst, a gleam of light penetrated the gloom of our existence, and showed us the kind hearts that were near. Some neighbours, by name Griffiths, know ing of our distress, pressed on my parents a loan of ^5. Part of the loan came from a young German clerk, who was then lodging with them. Later on, this good man, out of sheer kindness of heart, gave me German lessons during his dinner -hour, and shared with me his pudding or tart (as I was not used to eating meat) when I had been specially good and attentive. This was the late Mr. Francis Keller, afterwards Consul in Southampton 40 THE HERKOMERS chap. for the German Empire, a man greatly honoured in the town. In exchange for music- lessons, a pupil of my mother's taught me reading and writing, in which I was very backward at the age of eight. But it was soon thought necessary that I should attend a day-school with other boys, and the school which I joined was kept by a Mr. Monk. In the spring of 1907, having ascertained that he was still alive, I paid him a visit. We had not met since I left his school, but he had closely watched my career, and his delight in seeing me was very great. Looking round his little sitting- room, I saw hanging on the walls certain water-colour drawings, mostly copies from chromo-lithographs, that I had painted for the monthly competition in drawing in his school. A special arrangement had to be made for me that gave me always the highest marks without interfering with the real school- competition, as Mr. Monk considered that my " superior skill " put the other boys at too great a disadvantage. There also, on the mantelpiece, were the " flowers made of feathers, and fruit made of wax " ; nor must IV FIRST YEARS IN ENGLAND 41 I forget the ever-present antimacassar. That little room gave me a touching glimpse into the past. I grasped the new chance of acquiring knowledge at Mr. Monk's school with my usual enthusiasm, so much so that I overdid it, became exaggeratedly excited, lost my appetite and my sleep, and fell ill. This was after only six months' attendance at Mr. Monk's school. Six months ! — the sum- total of my life's school-education ! But I had a teacher ; and the viva voce education that accompanied work at my father's bench was incomparably more valuable to my peculiar temperament than any other form of education, for it was a means of developing, above all things, the power of reflecting. Endless were the questions I asked from morning to night, and lucid and direct were the answers I received. To this education my father devoted his life, and it was this duty (as he felt it) rather than his pride (as people thought) that prevented him from seeking a position as an ordinary workman. In that little room, and under those narrowed circum stances, my father's life -dream was instilled 42 THE HERKOMERS chap, iv into my nature : the dream of a great house built by the family ! The question of money wherewith to build this house never entered our thoughts ; it was going to be done, that was enough. Call it fanaticism, or what you will : it was a vision clearly seen in the very darkness of our life at that time. This house stands now in actuality, as a monument to the " seer," and to the two brothers who, with him, must be considered its makers. CHAPTER V EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND {continued) Possibly at this distance of time my memory may play me false. I must, however, give the events of the past as I remember them, and interpret them as I understand their meaning now. Looking back, I certainly can understand the mental condition of the boy ; but that of the parents is more complex. Happy they were not : how could they be ? The class of people with whom they came in contact began, in unmistakable terms, to express their disapproval of an art career for me, which gave unrest to my mother, and caused resent ment in my father. These people no doubt meant well enough ; but they instilled into my mother's mind the prevalent idea that the profession of an artist was of doubtful respect ability, and that starvation was sure to follow. 43 44 THE HERKOMERS chap. My father, holding stubbornly to his resolve regarding my future, was considered an eccentric, nay, even a wicked man. My mother, not understanding art, could not but listen to people who held such opinions of the artist. When they further pointed out what an advantage it would be to me if I could be taken into the Ordnance Survey Office in the town, where after forty years' service I should be entitled to a pension, my father lost his patience, and gave his answer definitely in the words : " My son shall never be a slave." Such outer influences on the mother were not conducive to a harmony between man and wife, and I seem to remember my mother constantly in tears, and my father (though kind and courteous) getting more and more silent. I also remember that his temper increased in its irascibility ; and with all his self-control and determined spirit, one could see in his face how much he suffered in trying to do what he considered right for me, and the effort it cost him to adhere to his plan. The difficulty of making ends meet, even with the increase of pupils to my mother. V EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 45 remained the daily anxiety. In this congested state of things, my father took the desperate resolve, in order to lessen the expenses of our life, of giving up meat, alcoholic drinks, and smoking — not by gradual steps, but at once. He did not impose the total abstinence and vegetarianism on my mother : she had her meat, and the glass of " half-and-half" at her meals. I followed my father enthusiastically, and wanted to share the glory of his manly renunciation. It was not many months before a remark able change came over my father. Although he looked paler, and had become thinner, the irascibility of his temper had practically dis appeared. He was equable and gentle in his moods, which the people, who attacked him afresh for his dietetic change, could scarcely disturb. In those days, be it told, teetotallers were objects for scoff, and non-meat-eaters for ridicule. That a more nitrogenous diet was necessary for my constitution can be asserted with truth ; but the total abstinence from alcohol can be declared as having been my salvation. I can see only too plainly now what a habit of taking alcoholic drinks would 46 THE HERKOMERS chap. have meant to my temperament through all my strenuous years. Having always forced work into a given time, the temptation to resort to a stimulant in order to be assisted over certain periods would have been too great to resist ; and I am prepared to say that moderation in its use would at times have been hardly possible. I have every reason to be thankful for my father's example in at least this direction. I remained an abstainer from alcohol until I was nearly fifty years old. Well, under the new regime my father became quietly happy. He sang his songs whilst at work with an enjoyment that had a touch of youthfulness in it, and all things were easier to bear. It must be also told that the saving on himself made a marked difference in the weekly expenditure ; the little income went further than before. About this time a dealer and restorer of old pictures in the town, having heard of my father as a man who could do most things, engaged him to back -line and restore old, dirty, and ragged canvases, purporting to be Old Masters — for which there was a great V EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 47 rage at the time. Anybody who had a dark, brown, or cracked picture rushed to the restorer in the hope of finding it turn out to be an Old Master. The first thing my father had to do was to clean half a picture (a portrait), making the division between the clean and the remaining dirty side come down the centre of the face. This work was con genial to my father : it paid well, and he earned from two to four pounds a week. Moreover, it brought within his reach an occasionally well -painted figure, which he would copy for his own pleasure. This pleasure-work he only indulged in on Sundays. The little glimpse of better conditions, alas ! was only to last a short time, for the dealer became bankrupt, and the dirty old pictures were sold and scattered. Let me describe our life in that little house, which varied but slightly from day to day. To me, as a boy, this house seemed quite large in its way, and great was my surprise when, after many years, I knocked at the door and asked the occupier of the house to let me see the front room. I found it of miniature dimensions. 48 THE HERKOMERS chap. If I had forgotten the size of that little front music-room, the smallness of the kitchen has remained in my memory in its true dimension — no doubt on account of the occasion when my father one day explained to me the convenience of being able to reach three of the four walls while sitting in the middle of the room. The fourth wall, where the window was located, was slightly beyond the reach, which gave sufficient space for the small table that was used for our meals. But there is another incident that happened in that kitchen, which has clung to my memory. The conversation — brought about, I believe, by a stupid tumble I had had — was turned to account by my father, who gave me a physical demonstration of the art of falling. How well I remember my fright as he fell in various ways on to the floor, with barely a foot of space to spare for his whole length ; yet he did this without the least damage to himself. It seemed horrible to me, and was still more so to my mother. As I instinctively rushed to pick him up, he rose quickly with a merry laugh, and, needless to say, without my help. For days after that I practised V EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 49 falls, until I had so many sore bones that my father thought (as he expressed it) that I had sufficiently grasped the principles. My parents rose at six a.m,, but I was allowed to remain in bed a little longer. My mother then did a certain amount of house work that needed the woman's touch. After my father had lighted the fire in the kitchen, and put on the kettle, he swept the front door-step and the pavement in front of the house. I did not like him to do this work, for it exposed him to the curious gaze of the passing folk, and I can recall the feelings that hurt my boyish heart (which was then already so full of admiration for him) as I saw him at that menial task. My mother undertook this cleaning ofthe door-step whilst in America, but my father would not allow it in England, where, he soon found, there was much snob bishness amongst the people with whom we came in contact. I said I did not like my father doing door-step cleaning, and grumbled a good deal, for I had an irritating way of worrying others about things that displeased me. But when my father said : " Well, sonny (an Americanism), will you do it ? " the so THE HERKOMERS chap. thing appeared to me in a new and not very acceptable light. I did do it for a day or two ; but in my anxiety not to be seen at the task, I swept those stones in such a per functory way that my father had to resume the duty again. My mother's day was entirely occupied with her pupils from breakfast to bed-time, leaving but short respites in which to take her meals. Therefore it devolved on my father and myself to do household work : cooking, washing up dishes, keeping the kitchen clean, answering the front door — my task mostly — and so on. In washing up dishes, my father never thrust his hands into the hot water, but in the most artistic way manipulated the little soft loose rag with the end of a short stick around the plate or dish, holding the part that projected beyond the water between the first finger and thumb of the left hand. To me was allotted the drying task, as I had broken too many things in the washing process. After breakfast I was sent out, with a large basket on my arm, to buy provisions. On these errands I got sometimes a little mixed V EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 51 with the money -change given me at the different shops, and could not always account for the exact cost of the different articles, for in arithmetic I never did shine ; and even to this day I have never mastered my multiplica tion table. Curiously enough, although I strongly objected to being seen with a broom in my hand sweeping the front door-step, I did not in the least mind being seen with a provision-basket. I felt I was a purchaser ; I patronized shops ! Moreover, I was fre quently the recipient of favours from shop keepers. At the grocer's I got a fig or a date ; at the greengrocer's a handful of nuts, a pear, or an apple (generally slightly rotten) ; at the butcher's a stray sausage or a kidney. On my return there was a certain preparation of food in the kitchen — peel ing potatoes, preparing other vegetables, and putting the beef in the saucepan to boil. The latter was to make the soup, which no German can dispense with at a mid day meal. And the meat, which had been boiled to give out its essence for this soup, was practically the only animal food we had. A noteworthy education went on in that 52 THE HERKOMERS chap, v kitchen. In the first place, manners at table seemed to my father of great importance, and he insisted on my mother and myself sitting down with him at least for the midday meal, and making it, even in our simple home, a ceremonial occasion. Now it was not easy for me as a boy to sit still anywhere for any length of time, and it would have been difficult for me to sit out a long meal had it been at a king's table. As for my mother, she was always in great haste to get back to her pupils, consequently both she and I bolted our food — for two different reasons. My father did all he could to rectify this habit of ours, on moral and hygienic grounds, but alas ! to little purpose. In his own manners he gave us a good precept ; but the deliberate way in which he took his food was at times to us exasperating. However, I must have gathered the real meaning of sitting together to break bread, for it forms the subject of the wall - decoration in the dining - room of my present house. CHAPTER VI EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND {continued) I HAVE said that I was sent out on errands ; but I was often away too long, and I grieve to say, told more than one lie to justify my prolonged absence. I deceived my parents as to the real cause ; and had the final explanation not come so unexpectedly I might have had a good thrashing. The truth was that whilst out once on my purchasing rounds some boys beguiled me into following them to the free baths, as it was high tide. I started swimming ; and what youth does not know the excitement of first learning to swim ? Naturally, the next day, and the days that followed, at the hour when I knew the tide would be up I sneaked round to the baths, and soon learned to swim and to dive. One day, entirely forgetting my deception, I asked my father to come and see me swim ! This was letting the cat out of the 53 54 THE HERKOMERS chap. bag with a vengeance. Having forbidden me to bathe, my father looked at me, and said, " When did you learn to swim .? " Then I had to make a clean breast of it. But my father, seeing in the little incident what a clumsy liar I was, smilingly answered that he would come one day. I was wildly happy, for I wanted his praise. He came with me to a swimming bath for which an entrance fee of twopence was charged. Seeing the little boys swim about him as he was standing in the shallow water, he, too, got the desire to learn this art, and at the age of fifty he began to swim, and was able very soon to cover a respectable distance. As I have already stated, my work at my father's bench was much interrupted by my various duties. But as I could not stick long at anything, I was the more ready to jump from one occupation to another. I was in a considerably excited state : I never walked downstairs, but slid down the balustrade from top to bottom in one slide (not a very great distance, perhaps) ; I seldom walked, but nearly always ran. I moved in spasmodic jerks ; in fact, I exhibited my neurotic temperament in VI EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 55 every movement. The continuance of this readiness to jump from one thing to another made my watchful father form the conclusion that it was not wholly my superabundance of energy that caused me to commence so many things and finish nothing, but that it arose from a mental deficiency — the want of application. In recalling certain things he said to me, and the ways he employed to re-interest me in work begun, I can clearly see now that after this discovery he set himself systematically to cure me of this mental weakness ; and it was so subtly and dexterously done that I did not realize I was under special treatment. This system was as effectual as it was simple. Sometimes, when I had, perhaps, three or four little carved animals in progress of making, which I dropped for the copying of an engrav ing or a chromo-lithograph that had just seized my fancy, he would take up one of these commenced animals, and quietly go on carving at it. First my curiosity was aroused ; then before long I itched to go on with it myself, when he would give it over to me without a word. In this way, everything I began was eventually finished. When I was about 56 THE HERKOMERS chap. fourteen, he divulged his method and the reason for employing it, urging me to continue it myself, as he knew that talent, without the power of continuing an effort, would produce little or nothing. Although he intended me to be an artist, he never regulated my artistic work. The desire to do this or that was the outcome of my own momentary impulse, which he never thwarted. Probably he did not know how a painter was trained. In his whole life he had only known one artist, the painter of the central panel of the altar he made for Waal. This artist belonged to the Overbeck school of painters of religious subjects, and was " academically trained," and a faithful adherent to the " sweetly religious sentiment " that was made popular by Overbeck and others at that time. I suspect it was owing to the influence of this man that my father got the erroneous idea that the whole secret of art depended on the ground on which one painted, or on how one under-painted in complementary colours. The phrase " academically trained " puts me in mind of a conversation I overheard in the Old Pinakothek Gallery when I was first VI EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 57 taken to Munich in 1 865, which maybe inserted here. I visited that gallery most assiduously. One day I was interested in watching one of those uniformed porters whose duty it is to clean the galleries before they are opened, and afterwards to walk round the rooms and keep an eye on the visitors. He was stealthily following a country priest from room to room. At last he got his opportunity to open a con versation, and carefully led up to the fact that he copied pictures. " So you are a painter," said the priest. " Oh ! yes," was the answer, " a painter, and academically trained ! " I distinctly remember the shock this answer produced on me. A painter, academically trained, yet to be still a porter in a gallery, and dressed in livery — was this what was in store for me ? But I must return to my narrative, which has not yet gone beyond my twelfth year. I wish to dwell on this period, as it was the dawn of a certain love of mysticism that has increased, rather than diminished, with the years. By mysticism I do not mean that adjunct to religious exaltation, or that practice in occult science so-called, but rather the 58 THE HERKOMERS chap. " mood " occasioned by the contemplation of some object or some scene, or even by a self- imposed mental image which, by a co-ordination of the many faculties of the brain, produces what the Germans call " Stimmung," for which we only have the inadequate word "mood." It so happened that the house in Windsor Terrace was the central one in the row, and had a kind of gabled roof. The space under this roof was used by my father for the storage of all manner of things which he had taken from Germany to America, and thence to England. There were steel engrav ings after religious pictures, issued by a Society for the dissemination of such works in Germany, woodcuts of various kinds from newspapers and German " Bilderbogen," casts, paint-pots, and what not. I loved to ruminate amongst these things ; it seemed an inspiring atmo sphere to me. The religious engravings interested me least. There were just two items that fascinated me and which I con templated for hours. To this day I can feel the mood which they occasioned in me at that time. The one was a woodcut representing a deserted garden. The ruins of a Rococo VI EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 59 palace, overgrown with creeper, were seen in the distance. The garden still showed that there was once an orderly plan of paths and flower-beds, but it was now a wilderness of wilful growth of flower and weed, A sun dial, ivy-covered, still stood; and grass grew where it was once carefully eradicated by human hands. There was a poetic melancholy in the whole scene that fired my imagination. To symbolize the glory of the past the artist had produced in the foreground a group of beautiful fruits of all kinds, by the side of which stood a peacock with spreading tail. The other item was a photograph from an engraving, and was of an entirely different character. It represented something unreal and impossible : floating figures of beautiful women who, in circles and hand-in-hand, were moving, without natural volition, around an island in a lake. The head of the central figure came across the great moon, giving her a nimbus of mystic significance. These figures incarnated the witchery of twilight. But they meant more to me than that : they meant woman, spiritualized, entering for the first time the conscious mind of the advancing boy. 6o THE HERKOMERS chap, vi These figures did not represent the dead to me : they were to me beings who could breathe, who could speak, and who did speak to me — beings that could have touched me. I gave each figure a name : and only thought of each by name : they became a part of my undeveloped boy-life. Unsecretive as my nature always was, I nevertheless kept all this a secret from my father. I felt I could not explain, and I dreaded lest his sound judg ment would destroy my dream and leave a void that I thought I could not endure. And now for the sequel of this infatuation, which I give as a problem for psychologists to solve : Is it a mere coincidence that the central figure of the group in that scene should have become the type of all the female figures in my life's allegorical and decorative work ? I think not. It had a deeper meaning. CHAPTER VII EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND {continued) My real joy was in my father's little work shop. If there was no commissioned work, my father had always something on hand that interested me, and he never failed to give me instruction in the things that I wished to do. He gave me the use of his tools, advised me in the carving of little animals, which I copied from a book of engravings of animal life (given me by a lady pupil of my mother's), in the making of cross-bows, which always had a bit of carving on the stock, in the making of kites and even of cricket-bats. He would say : " I cannot buy you anything, but I will help you to make what you want." In consequence of this help from my father, I became a most important personage amongst my boy friends, for they came to me to mend their kites and the broken handles of their 6i 62 THE HERKOMERS chap. bats. I had another, and rather strange reputa tion, quite apart from this practical side, that of being able to entertain my boy friends with stories of the most fanciful, unreal, and im possible kind, always invented on the spur of the moment — the moment when they were required ; and I found that the more im possible and outrageous they were, the greater the approval. In our daily converse I some times told my father these stories, and he evidently saw a certain power of mental image-making awakening in me, of which he knew the importance for an artist. Instead of disparaging this form of mental exercise, he at once encouraged it. In fine weather he sent me to the Southampton Common for the day, when I took with me a little lunch, consisting of brown bread and nuts. Although, at his request, I also took painting materials with me, he urged me rather to sit in the thicket and dream dream-pictures, scenes — anything ; but he was always careful to insist that I should " visualize " my thoughts so definitely that I could tell him clearly what I had evolved in my imaginative brain. I have continued this exercise throughout my life. vn EARLY YEARS IN ENGLAND 63 and it has been of unspeakable benefit to my career. These details of my training will possibly be considered trivial, but it will perhaps be allowed as an excuse for my relating them that I think they may be of real service to other ardent lads struggling for light in an artistic direction. Our life coursed on from day to day with but little variety ; my work consisted of toy- making, copying engravings in water-colours (always consulting my father as to the colour ing), dreaming and sketching in the secluded parts of the common, assisting my mother with her pupils, and performing at her concerts — the latter being very much to my taste. In these concerts I had not only to play on the piano, but had to sing songs, dressed up in certain costumes, which necessi tated a little acting. I may mention that I had a first-rate voice as a boy, and could reach the high C with ease. I cannot remember how I learnt music, nor do I remember having ever practised, but, somehow or other, I could always do what was required of me. Sometimes a visitor 64 THE HERKOMERS chap. would come, and I was shown off with my voice by my mother. This was quite to my liking, as I was always ready for praise, and always ready to cause a surprise when an occasion gave me the chance. Such visitors would sometimes give me the smallest silver coin of the realm — I think a fourpenny-bit in those days. It happened at times that I ob tained such a coin for a drawing, which elated me even more. Thus it was that my rewards, being equally divided between music and art, caused no disappointment to either of the parents. These small rewards I was always allowed to spend as I pleased. My father received but few commissions. But one — a Gothic armchair, to be made out of old oaken beams taken from an ancient church — was a happy opportunity for him. He also enjoyed giving carving lessons to a private gentleman. Otherwise the only stock- jobs that came his way were the so-called " Oxford frames," at that time so popular for the framing of e'