British · Victorian · Animal painting
Herbert Thomas Dicksee
b. 14 June 1862, London — d. 20 February 1942, Hampstead, London
Herbert Thomas Dicksee (1862–1942) was a British animal painter and etcher famous for lions, tigers and dogs, many published as etchings, including Victory (1919), a lion pinning a python.
1 work in the collection
Works by Herbert Thomas Dicksee
Herbert Thomas Dicksee (1862–1942) was a British painter and etcher who specialized in animals, especially big cats and dogs. His etchings, issued in editions by the publishers Frost & Reed, hung in thousands of Edwardian homes, and the catalogue's Victory (1919), a lion with a python pinned beneath its paw, is a typical example.
Life in brief
Dicksee was born in London into a family of painters. His father, John Robert Dicksee, was a portrait and genre painter who taught drawing at the City of London School; his uncle Thomas Francis Dicksee was a painter of portraits and literary subjects; and his cousin was Sir Frank Dicksee, later President of the Royal Academy. (Some sources wrongly call Frank his brother.) Herbert studied at the Slade School under Alphonse Legros, a master of etching, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from the early 1880s. He died in Hampstead in 1942. His will directed his daughter Dorothy to destroy most of his etching plates, so no new impressions could be printed.
Style and subjects
Dicksee drew lions, tigers and leopards from life at London Zoo, and his animals have a real weight and anatomy, though he often set them in melodramatic scenes: a tiger stalking, a lion roaring over a kill, a dog guarding a sleeping child. In etching he used dense crosshatching and deep, inky blacks to give fur texture and to dramatize nocturnal settings.
Victory
In Victory a roaring lion stands over a huge python, one forepaw crushing the snake's coils, its head raised in triumph. Published in 1919, the year after the end of the First World War, its title and subject could hardly have been read without patriotic overtones, the British lion overcoming a deadly enemy. As an etching it exists in multiple impressions, so it is found in many collections rather than one museum.
Where to see his work
His etchings appear regularly at auction and in print dealers' stock; examples are held by British public collections. See also Academic Art.
Questions & answers
Who made Victory, the etching of a lion and a python?
Victory (1919) is an etching by the British animal artist Herbert Thomas Dicksee, published by Frost & Reed. It shows a roaring lion pinning a large python beneath its paw. As an edition print, impressions are found in many collections.
Was Herbert Dicksee related to Frank Dicksee?
Yes. Herbert Thomas Dicksee was the cousin of Sir Frank Dicksee, President of the Royal Academy. Herbert's father was the painter John Robert Dicksee, and Frank's father was John's brother, Thomas Francis Dicksee.
What did Herbert Thomas Dicksee paint?
He specialized in animals, especially lions, tigers, leopards and dogs, drawn partly at London Zoo. He is best known for his etchings, widely published in the early twentieth century, as well as oils and watercolors.