Henry Thomas Alken 1785-1851. Pencil and watercolour drawing. A sportsman and his dogs flushing a pheasant from cover. 33 by 23 cms. to mounted image. Provenance: With The Parker Gallery London Ca.1960.
The most distinguished member of an artistic dynasty, Henry Alken was The pre-eminent sporting artist of the early nineteenth century. Born in Golden Square, Soho, London on 12 October 1785, the third son of Samuel Alken, an architect and engraver of Danish origin. He studied under his father, and was apprenticed to the miniaturist John Barber. During this apprenticeship, he exhibited two portrait miniatures at the Royal Academy of Arts (1801-2), but failed to capitalise on his initial exposure.
Alken married in Ipswich, Suffolk in 1809, and lived there for some years. He mixed with the notorious Meltonian hunting set, of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire and he may have lived there, and worked as a horse breeder. His earliest sporting prints were signed ‘Ben Tally Ho’ from 1813, and
under his own name from 1816. At this time, he had returned to London, and was living in the Haymarket, over the shop of Thomas McLean, the print publisher. During the 1820s, Alken was at his most skilful and successful, producing many prints and illustrating numerous books, the subjects ranging across comic and serious. Volumes included The National Sports of Great Britain (1821), Real Life in London (1821-22), A Touch at the Fine Arts (1824) and Sporting Scrap Book (1824). And, while his work declined in quality and popularity from the 1830s, he continued to work, he died in poverty on 7 April 1851. His funeral was paid for by one of his sons-in-law.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum and the V&A; and the New York Public Library.