The Life of Henry Tonks

Description

Henry Tonks (1862 - 1937) was a surgeon before taking up a career in art. He was born in Solihull, educated in Bristol and studied medicine in Brighton and London.From 1888 he took evening art classes at Westminster School of Art; by 1892 he had begun teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he became an influential instructor to the likes of Stanley Spencer, Augustus John and Paul Nash. During World War I he resumed his career as a surgeon and famously created a series of pastel drawings of facial injury cases. By 1918 Tonks had became an official War Artist touring the Western Front with John Singer Sargent; in 1919, he visited Archangel,Russia. Post-war he continued as Slade Professor of Fine Art. He died at his home in Chelsea, London in 1937.

Joseph Hone (1882 - 1959) was an Irish writer, literary historian, critic and biographer. He was part of the Anglo-Irish Hone dynasty whose members include Nathaniel Hone the Elder (a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768), Evie Hone (a stained glass artist) and Major-General Sir Herbert Hone (Governor of North Borneo 1950 - 54).