Thomas Hennell

 

I found this image on a picture-sharing platform this morning, and liked it on sight for its light touch and lively, easy style. It's a watercolour of 'Hampden Row' (Hampton Row in Bath?) by Thomas Hennell, a name that meant almost nothing to me. An artist, illustrator and writer with a particular interest in rural subjects, Hennell was born in Kent in 1903, and his career was interrupted by a schizophrenic breakdown that led to his spending more than three years in mental hospitals. When he returned to his life's work in 1935, he collaborated frequently with the prolific ruralist writer H.J. Massingham, and was encouraged by Edward Bawden (whom he had met, along with Eric Ravilious, in 1931) to write an account of his mental illness, The Witnesses. In 1936 a volume of Hennell's poems was published, with wood engravings by Ravilious. 
  Hennell's life, like so many others, changed dramatically with the coming of war in 1939. He immediately offered his services to the War Artists' Advisory Committee (headed by Kenneth Clark), who initially commissioned him to paint records of farming life, but in 1943 he became a salaried official war artist – and was sent to Iceland to replace Eric Ravilious, missing presumed dead after his plane had come down at sea while searching for a missing aircraft.  Hennell painted for some months in Iceland before returning to England. After that, he seems to have spent most of his time on the move, still working as a war artist, recording preparations for D-Day, following the First Canadian Army through northern France, then joining a Royal Navy unit to record the advance into Belgium and Holland. After this he worked for the Air Ministry in the Far East, painting in Burma, travelling across India to Colombo, then to Penang and Singapore. His final assignment was in Java, where he was captured by Indonesian nationalist fighters in November 1945 and never seen again. Born in the same year as Ravilious, he lived only three years longer. Two sad losses for English art. 
  Rather surprisingly, Hennell doesn't feature in Christopher Neve's classic Unquiet Landscape. There is, however, an excellent website devoted to him and his work, which is well worth a look...