George Charles Haité
George Charles Haité | |
---|---|
Born | George Charles Haité 8 June 1855 Bexleyheath, England |
Died | 31 March 1924 London, England | (aged 68)
Nationality | English |
Known for | Painting, Illustration, Textile |
George Charles Haité (8 June 1855 – 31 March 1924) was an English designer, painter, illustrator and writer. His most famous work is the iconic cover design of the
Life and Art
George Charles Haité was born in
His great grandfather, William Haité, and his grandfather, Henry Haité, worked in the
His father, George Haité (1825–1871), was a prominent early Victorian cashmere shawl designer, albeit sadly so disillusioned with being a "slave of the fashion of the hour"[2] that he actively discouraged his son from following him into the same profession. Ironically, it was his father's premature death of smallpox aged 45 that propelled G.C. to do just that when he found himself head of the household at the age of 16.
Haité would later comment in his own Who's Who entry that he was "absolutely self-taught" in art. After moving to London in the early 1870s he began making a name for himself as a wallpaper and carpet designer, later working in metal, tapestry and stained glass.
In 1883 he exhibited the first of many paintings at the
According to his friend, the great war correspondent Frederic Villiers: "I never met a man who was so rapid with brush and colours in transferring an impression to his canvas. His memory is so marvellously correct that one may watch him produce, within an hour or so, a sketch of a Dutch market-place with its greyness of atmosphere, a street in Bruges with the architectural beauty of its cathedral and houses, or a suburb in Tangier with its mosques and minarets glowing in the heat against a deep purple sky, as accurate in tone and drawing as if he had been seated in front of his subject."[3]
As Villiers also commented, Haité was "one of the busiest men of his own little stage, for he is a president or fellow of some eight or nine art societies."
Haité also wrote and lectured on art and design and in 1897 was elected president of the Nicolson Institute art gallery in
Illustration work and The Strand magazine
In 1886, Haité published Plant Studies for Artists, Designers and Art Students. Though it would be the only book solely written and illustrated by Haité, he edited and contributed drawings to numerous others including naturalist Edward Tickner Edwardes' Side-Lights of Nature in Quill and Crayon and In The Green Leaf and the Sere by the pseudonymous ornithologist "A Son of the Marshes".[5]
In late 1890 he was asked by editor George Newnes to provide the cover pen and ink illustration for his new magazine The Strand, launched in January 1891. As sales of the magazine took off with the first of its Sherlock Holmes stories, beginning with A Scandal in Bohemia in the July 1891 issue, Haité's graphic rendering of London's Strand looking eastwards with the magazine title suspended from telegraph wires was destined to become an icon of late-Victorian publishing.
Variations of Haité's design were featured on its sister title, The Strand Musical Magazine, and on several Sherlock Holmes first edition bound volumes.
The Sette of Odd Volumes and Oscar Wilde
In 1883, Haité was elected a member of the elite literary club the Sette of Odd Volumes.[6] He became its annual vice-president in 1887 and president – known as "Oddship" – from 1891–92. Since the Sette addressed its members under individual titles pertaining to their interests or profession, Haité was referred to as "The Art-Critic". As president he fashioned his own medal shaped like a painter's palette and staged a then-novel "Phonograph Evening" where the members recorded their voices onto an Edison wax Phonograph cylinder. Even more revolutionary for the club, it was under Haité's presidency that the Sette broke with male-dominated tradition by staging its first mixed "Ladies Evening".[7]
Other than its core membership of "Brothers", the Sette attracted many esteemed guests to its supper evenings and it was here that Haité met, among others,
There are records of at least four meetings with Wilde, the earliest being a report in the
The London Sketch Club
In the spring of 1898, Haité was instrumental in the formation of the
Although Haité sat for a formal oil portrait by Frank O'Sullivan, it is through the many caricatures and drawings in the archives of the London Sketch Club that we have the most vivid representations of both his physical appearance and eccentric mannerisms, frequently depicted mid-oration, arms gesticulating wildly, hair on end and sporting an impressive
After four years as president Haité was persuaded to step down in 1902, after which the club would elect a new president every year. Despite his previous desertion, Haité was still welcomed at the Langham Sketching Club and would be re-elected its president one last time in 1908.[8]
Death and legacy
In 1883, Haité married Fanny Hodgkinson and settled in the new garden suburb of Bedford Park near Chiswick. He lived and worked at two separate addresses there, both of which he christened Ormsby Lodge. The couple had one daughter, Elsie Blanche Evelyn Frances Haité (1889–1971). An invalid for the last nine years of his life, Haité died on 31 March 1924. His widow Fanny remained at Ormsby Lodge, The Avenue, Bedford Park until her death in 1935.
A selection of work by both Haité and his namesake father can be viewed in the prints and drawings collection of the Victoria and Albert museum, Kensington, London.
References
- ^ Cuppleditch, David, The London Sketch Club, Alan Sutton Publishing, 1994, p. 25.
- ^ Young, Hilary, Designs For Shawls. Webb & Bower, 1988, p. 12.
- ^ a b Villiers, Frederic, Peaceful Personalities and Warriors Bold. Harper & Brothers, 1907, p. 28.
- ISBN 0-7136-3143-0. A & C Black.
- ^ Jordan, Denham. In The Green Leaf and the Sere, London: Trübner & Co., 1896.
- ^ Villiers, Frederic, Peaceful Personalities and Warriors Bold. Harper & Brothers, 1907, p 29.
- ^ The Year Boke of the Odd Volumes: An Annual Record of the Transactions of the Sette. Fourteenth Year — 1891–1892, London: Sette of Odd Volumes, 1893. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ^ Cuppleditch, David, The London Sketch Club. Alan Sutton Publishing, 1994.