Exhibition · Supplementary material · Loca
Where he lived and painted, and where the works were shown, for the exhibition What Song the Syrens Sang. The sources name the place where a work was painted for one work only; for the others they name where it was shown — the room at the Academy, the gallery, the city. Three sheets, each closer than the last: London, where he lived; the West End, where he showed; the rooms of the Academy. The maps and plans are of the time; the lines of the catalogues are given as printed.
Sheet I · 1891–1912
The large Map of London, on the scale of 1 : 21,200, is divided into three sections, of which the uppermost is coloured brown, the central red, and the lowest gray.
Baedeker, before the list of streets · London and its Environs, 1896, List of the Principal Streets
1891
Marked: the district, from the lettering on the plan; the studio is neither named nor marked. The place is from the essay in the Christie’s catalogue (2016): ‘Following an extensive tour of Northern Italy, Germany, Holland and Belgium, Draper returned to London in 1891, rented a studio in Chelsea and began work on The Spirit of the Fountain’.
1892–1898
Marked: Pembroke Gardens, from the lettering on the plan, which the edge of the section cuts short; the studios are not marked. The address is printed in the Academy’s catalogue of 1892, beside his one work that year, no. 891. Baldry, on the page quoted below, writes that he ‘took a studio at Rome for the winter of 1891–2, and painted there a picture which appeared in the 1892 Academy’.
Baldry, writing in 1898, says that all the works by which Draper had made his name were painted in this studio, until his move to St John’s Wood that year (below); which of the works in this exhibition were among them, the sources do not say.
“Brace yourself, therefore, my dear fellow,” he wrote, “and stick to your own country, where, though the conditions of light are unfavourable in the winter, in the summer, on the other hand, they are peculiarly favourable. There is no light for painting like the light of an English summer.” Guided by this kindly advice Mr. Draper took the studio at Kensington in which, until his migration to St. John’s Wood in the present year, all the works by which he has established his reputation have been produced. At first he had an idea of dividing his time between painting and black-and-white work, and in 1892–3 he actually produced several drawings for illustration.
A. L. Baldry, on Lord Leighton’s answer to his question whether to settle in Italy · The Magazine of Art, December 1898, p. 51
Draper, H. J., 9, Pembroke Studios, Pembroke-gardens, Kensington—891
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1892, list of exhibitors · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1892, p. 68
From 1898
Marked: the street, from the lettering on the plan; the house is not marked. The address is printed in the Academy’s catalogues of 1898 and 1912 (below).
No. 903 of 1898 is The Lament for Icarus, and no. 730 of 1912 The Mountain Mists: both hung in Gallery No. X (Sheet III).
Draper, H. J., 15, Abbey-road, N.W.—36, 903, 973
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1898, list of exhibitors · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1898, p. 67
Draper, H., 15 Abbey-road, N.W.—387, 730
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1912, list of exhibitors · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1912, p. 67
Sheet II · 1898–1919
Weary with his patient wanderings through the Academy, the amiable pilgrim of art turns to the New Gallery, where the pictures are fewer and where there is no such Alpine climbing for the eye as at Burlington House.
The New Gallery’s summer exhibition, 1899 · The Art Journal, 1899, p. 185
The Royal Academy · summer exhibitions, 1898–1919
Marked: the building, from the lettering on the plan. Seven works of the exhibition were shown here; the rooms where they hung are on Sheet III.
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly (p. 268). Exhibition of the works of living British painters and sculptors, from first Monday in May to first Monday in August. Open daily 8–7; admission 1s., catalogue 1s.
Baedeker, ‘Exhibitions of Pictures’ · London and its Environs, 1896, p. 68
Summer exhibition, 1899
Marked: the building, from the lettering on the plan; the address is in the same guide (below). The picture is named in The Art Journal’s notice of the summer exhibition of 1899 (below); the sale record (Bonhams, 2004) gives ‘National Gallery, 1899’.
The New Gallery, 121 Regent Street. Summer and winter exhibitions. Admission 1s.
Baedeker, the same page · London and its Environs, 1896, p. 68
As at the Academy, Mr. Herbert Draper has endeavoured to prove that he is not a painter to be confined in a single groove. ‘For St. Dorothea’s Day’ is really an elaborate flower-study, with still-life accessories and a carefully painted figure of a nun—a picture very different from those mythological sea-and-sirens themes associated with his name.
The notice of the summer exhibition · The Art Journal, 1899, p. 188
Exhibitions of his drawings and studies, 1905 and 1913
Marked: the square, from the lettering on the plan; the galleries are not marked. Their address is in Baedeker’s guide of 1911 (below); the exhibitions are from the holders’ records.
… Leicester Galleries, 20 Green St., Leicester Square, etc. Usual charge 1s.
Baedeker, on the exhibitions of the dealers · London and its Environs, 1911, p. 39
Sheet III · 1898–1919
1902
Marked: room 1 on the plan; the catalogue of 1902 places no. 26 in ‘Gallery No. I’.
Gallery No. I. — … — 26 A deep sea idyll … Herbert J. Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1902 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1902, p. 8
1909
Marked: room 4 on the plan; the catalogue of 1909 places no. 206 in ‘Gallery No. IV’.
Gallery No. IV. — … — 206 Ulysses and the Sirens … Herbert Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1909 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1909, p. 15
1918
Marked: room 6 on the plan; the catalogue of 1918 places no. 304 in ‘Gallery No. VI’.
Gallery No. VI. — … — 304 Réveil … Herbert Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1918 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1918, p. 25
1901
Marked: room 11 on the plan; the catalogue of 1901 places no. 845 in ‘Gallery No. XI’.
Gallery No. XI. — … — 845—The capture: “Where land and water kiss” … Herbert J. Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1901 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1901, p. 35
1898, 1912 and 1919
Marked: room 10 on the plan, beside the Architectural Room; the catalogues of 1898, 1912 and 1919 place nos. 903, 730 and 588 in ‘Gallery No. X’.
The Mountain Mists is treated at length in the dossier of the principal work.
Gallery No. X. — … — 903—The lament for Icarus. Purchased by the President and Council of the Royal Academy under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest … Herbert J. Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1898 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1898, p. 33
Gallery No. X. — … — 730 The mountain mists … Herbert Draper
“Like Semele the mountain mists were whelmed,
And perished in the ardour of the sun.”
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1912 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1912, p. 28
Gallery No. X. — 588 Miss Barbara de Sélincourt … Herbert Draper
Catalogue of the exhibition, 1919 · The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1919, p. 39
1898–1902
Source: the catalogue of the National Gallery of British Art of 1907 for The Lament for Icarus (below), and the records of the holders and sale catalogues for the other works.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and at Leeds in 1898. Chantrey Purchase, 1898.
On The Lament for Icarus · Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures and Sculpture in the National Gallery, British Art, 1907, p. 79
1903–1963
Source: the record in the Christie’s catalogue (2016): ‘Loaned by the artist in 1903 to the Municipal Art Gallery (now Tatham Art Gallery), Pietermaritzburg (where known as “A Sea-Maid’s Love Story”), and purchased by public subscription for the Gallery before 1905’; it remained there until 1963, when the gallery sold it.
The plans: K. Baedeker, London and its Environs, 10th edn (Leipsic, 1896), the large plan of London in three sections (scan of the copy at Emory University, Internet Archive), public domain; and the plan of the galleries in the Royal Academy’s catalogue of 1912 (Paul Mellon Centre, CC BY-NC 4.0). Each circle is set on the lettering as printed: the street, the district, the building, the number of the room. The addresses and the rooms are from the Academy’s catalogues of 1892–1919 (scans of the Paul Mellon Centre, CC BY-NC 4.0); the words on the places from A. L. Baldry’s article in The Magazine of Art (December 1898), The Art Journal (1899), Baedeker’s guides of 1896 and 1911, and the catalogue of the National Gallery of British Art (1907) (Internet Archive). The place where a work was painted, and where it was shown outside the Academy, are from the records of the holders and of the sale catalogues: Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Woolley & Wallis. The photographs of the places are from The Queen’s London (London: Cassell, 1897; scan, Duke University Libraries, Internet Archive), each with the book’s caption verbatim.
After The Chicago Manual of Style (18th edn, 2024), in the form used in art-historical publications.