D&E Lake Ltd. - Books and Art

WILLIAM LEE HANKEY Etchings [1911-1928]

Current Exhibition, Opening July 2018

Born in Chester, England, 1869. William Lee-Hankey studied at the Chester School of Art, and gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London. After his studies he established himself in Chester and worked as a designer. In the early 1900s he resided in Paris and was influenced by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage. He began to exhibit in London at the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street in 1893, and at the Royal Academy in 1896. He also showed at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, as well as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. He was the President of the London Sketch Club from 1902-1904. In 1936 he became a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour, and was elected president in 1947. From 1907 to 1912 he taught etching at the Art School of the Goldsmiths’ College, New Cross, London. He exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Artistes Français and received an honourable mention in 1906. He Joined the Army during the First World War, and served with the Artists’ Rifles from 1914-1916. At the end of the war he returned to painting and printmaking. From 1904 until well after the war he maintained a studio at the Etaples artists colony in France. He was a painter and master etcher of landscapes, character studies, and above all scenes of intimate country life in Brittany, Normandy, and England. He won many medals and became an elected member of the major art institutions, including the Royal Institute. His work is in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and numerous other public and private collections throughout the world. William Lee-Hankey died in London, on February 10, 1952. [Hardie. “The Etched Work of William Lee Hankey RI from 1904 to 1920”; Benezit. “Dictionnaire des Peintres Sculpteurs Dessinateures et Graveurs’. [vol. 6, p.728]; J. Johnson and A. Greutzner, “The Dictionary of British Artists, 1880-1940”; and general web resources].