George Harcourt RA was a Scottish portrait and figure painter, known for painting influential members of society.
Biography
From Dumbarton, Scotland, George Harcourt was born on 11 October 1868 and died on 30 September 1947. He studied at the Herkomer School of Art in Bushey from 1889–92 and later went on to become the head of school. He rose to become the President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1945 following a spell as vice-president and was also the Director of the Royal Academy. He first became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1919 and was then elected as an Academician in 1926. In 1944 he was elected as a senior Academician and became Director of Schools in 1927. After studying art in Dumbarton, George Harcourt initially worked as an interior decorator of salons and luxury cabins at the local shipyard Denny Brothers Shipbuilding. In 1888 he went to Bushey and enrolled in the Herkomer School of Art. The school, founded by the German-born painter Hubert von Herkomer in 1883, enjoyed a very good reputation in England at the time and was known for its unconventional educational practice. As one of the best students, Harcourt later became a lecturer at this art school. Later, he taught at the prestigious London Slade School of Fine Art, in which his daughter Anne studied. Over the years, Harcourt's style of painting changed from a Pre-Raphaelite influenced naturalism to an almost photorealistic portraiture. This perfection not only gave him a great reputation among colleagues, but also secured him a good income as a portraitist of the British upper class. He submitted to the Royal Academy of Arts his diploma thesis, this proved he had skills that went beyond the naive kitsch of his earlier years. In 1893 George Moore reviewed the artworks at the Royal Academy commenting in The New Review, London, on a portrait exhibited there by George Harcourt - At the Window.
Harcourt received in 1912 a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Amsterdam. In 1921 he submitted to the jury of the Royal Academy of Art, a portrait of his daughter Anne. He was admitted in 1926 as a full member of the Academy. Up to this point he was an Associate Royal Academician, which he had held since 1919. He also briefly became Deputy Director of the Royal Academy Schools. In 1923 he got another gold medal in the exhibition at the Salon de Paris.
Exhibitions
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts Memorial Exhibition of George Harcourt and Francis Hodge. Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour. Stand to your work. Hubert Herkomer and his students. Watford Museum, Watford 1983,..
