JOHN HENRY FREDERICK BACON  A.R.A., M.V.O.

2 Cathcart Hill c.1889-90

Born in Kennington, South London in 1865, J. H. F. Bacon was a gifted painter and book illustrator. Bacon, who had already acquired a formidable artistic reputation as a teenager, studied at the Westminster School of Art and the Royal Academy. Aged only 18  he undertook a professional painting tour of India and Burma, returning some seven years later in 1889 to 2 Cathcart Hill, the family residence that his mother and father, John Cardinall Bacon, a skilled lithographer, occupied from 1881 – 1890.  It was whilst at this address that his works were exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy to considerable critical acclaim. Success followed success and in 1903 he was commissioned to produce the ‘command picture’ of the Coronation of Edward VII and that of  George V’s Coronation in 1912. Somewhat fragile in build and burdened with many ongoing commissions, John Henry Frederick Bacon died of acute bronchitis in 1914 leaving a wife and seven children. The King and Queen sent a telegram of condolence, an indication of the high esteem that he was held in.

Undated black and white illustration for a publication, c.1890

The Relief of Ladysmith, 1900. Second Boer War.

Illustration from Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire, 1913.

The Wedding Morning, 1892.

Portrait of Marion Henry Spielmann. Undated