Identity:

Arthur Hacker was a painter. He married Lilian Price Hacker.

Life:

Hacker, who specialised in portrait, genre and historical painting, studied at the Royal Academy Schools and with Léon Bonnat in Paris. His early works were primarily genre scenes, e.g. Her Daughter's Legacy, but he soon built up a reputation as a society portrait painter. His Annunciation (exh. R.A. 1892) was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1892.

Hacker was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883. In 1886 he was elected a member of the New English Art Club, a group with which JW exhibited in 1888. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1894 and a full member in 1910, having exhibited with the institute since 1878. In addition, he was named a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891 and of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour in 1918. He was also a member of The Arts Club from 1884 to 1919.

Hacker was amongst those proposed invitees to a dinner organised by W. C. Symons to congratulate JW on becoming an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Munich, a dinner which was to be held at the Criterion in Piccadilly on 1 May 1889 (#00631).

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Wood, Christopher, Dictionary of Victorian Artists, Woodbridge, 1971; Johnson, J., and Anna Greutzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980.