Cecil Aldin (1870-1935) was a British artist and illustrator, seen here as a young man with four dogs in Bedford Park, Chiswick, West London. Date: 1890s. Photograph: © Mary Evans Picture Library – Mary Evans Picture Library makes available wonderful images created for people to enjoy over the centuries.
.
Cecil Aldin: A Dog Day and The Art of Black Beauty
.
Cecil Aldin – Bear Alley profile
Cecil Aldin was described as one of the leading spirits in the renaissance of British sporting art. Following the death of Henry Aiken in 1851, sporting art had been in the doldrums until the emergence of Aldin and Denholm Armour (1864-1949) towards the end of the 19th century. Between them, they founded a school of realistic portrayal of country pursuits which not only appealed to sportsmen but to the broader public.
He was particularly noted for painting of horses, dogs and hunting scenes—a hobby he particularly enjoyed. The anonymous writer of Aldin’s obituary in The Times noted, “… there never yet has been a painter of dogs fit to hold a candle to him. Of all his immensely diverse interests the study of dogs came foremost … Somebody once complained that his drawings of dogs were ‘too human’; they were not, but often showed character that even their owners had not noticed.”
Aldin rapidly established himself as a versatile and productive artist. He moved first to Chelsea and then to Bedford Park, Chiswick, where he found himself in a brotherhood of artists which included James Pryde and his brother-in-law William Nicholson—the Beggarstaff Brothers—and John Hassall, who was to become a very good friend. Aldin’s other associates included Phil May, Dudley Hardy, Lance Thackeray and many others; this wide range of friends and colleagues led to much cross-pollination of ideas and techniques.
Cecil was married to Marguerite Dorothy Morris, daughter of merchant Frederic Hall Morris, on 18 June 1895 at Ascension, Balham Hill. The newly married couple lived at ‘The Limes’, Flanders Road, Bedford Park, where their son Dudley Cecil Aldin was born in 1897, and, from around 1898, at 41 Priory Road, Chiswick, where daughter Gwendolene Mabel Aldin was born in 1899. He died at 20 Devonshire Place, Marylebone, London, on 6 January 1935. He was survived by his wife and daughter, his son having been killed in action whilst serving with the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1916.
Cecil was a well-known as an artist, etcher and draughtsman, specialising particularly on animal subjects. He apparently kept 13 dogs, two monkeys and a fox cub while in Bedford Park. He also kept a hunter in his stable. When the family moved to Berkshire, his interest in hunting, horses and dogs led him to become Master of the South Berkshire Hunt, which, at the outset of the Great War led him to act as an Army Remount Purchasing Officer. Being too old for active service, he was Major in charge of the remount depot near Pangbourne, a task which must have grieved the animal-loving man deeply because it involved dealing with the horses that were being sent out to almost certain death on the Western Front. His own mounts were among the first to be given up to the Army. He developed many local Remount Depots, including eventually a number of Ladies’ Army Remount Units, staffed entirely by women (see his painting below).
.
