Horace William Petherick
{{short description|Artist and illustrator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = William Horace Petherick
| image = H. W. Petherick by Rosa C. Petherick.jpg
| alt = Sketch of Horace Petherick by his daughter Rosa in 1900
| caption = Petherick illustrated by his daughter, Rosa C. Petherick
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1839|12|04|df=y}}
| birth_place = St Pancras, London
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1919|03|08|1839|12|04|df=y}}
| death_place = Addiscombe, Croydon, London
| nationality = British
| other_names = Signed his work as H. P. or H. W. P.
| occupation = Artist, illustrator, musician, violin expert
| years_active = 1860-1890 as illustrator, from 1890 as a violin expert
| known_for = Vice-presidency of the Cremona Society
| notable_works = The repairing and restoration of violins (1903)
}}
Horace William Petherick (1839-1919) was an artist and illustrator, a violin connoisseur, and a writer. As an artist, four of his works are in public collections in the UK; as an illustrator, he illustrated over 100 books, some of which are still in print, and his work can be found in digital collections at the British Library, the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, and the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature; as a violin connoisseur, he owned both a Stradivarius and a del Gesù; and as an author, three of his books are still in print.
Early life and family
Petherick was born on 4 December 1838. Very little is known about his early life. He was the third of eight children to tailor William Richard Petherick and Phoebe Mary Ann, née Cooper who had married in St Pancras on 12 April 1835. Two of Horace's siblings died in early childhood.{{ cite book |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Robert J. |title=The Men Who Drew For Boys (And Girls): 101 Forgotten Illustrators of Children's Books: 1844-1970 |chapter=H. Petherick |pages=346 |date=1905-07-11 |publisher=Robert J. Kirtkpatrick |location=London }}
Petherick was registered on the 1861 census as an artist. He married Clementina Augusta Bewley Bonny (c.1860-1909) and the couple immediately moved to Addiscombe, Surrey, where they remained for the rest of their lives. The couple had seven children, two of whom died in infancy, leaving five girls, of whom one, Rosa Clementina (1872-1931) became an illustrator like her father.{{ cite book |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Robert J. |title=The Men Who Drew For Boys (And Girls): 101 Forgotten Illustrators of Children's Books: 1844-1972 |chapter=H. Petherick |pages=348 |date=1905-07-11 |publisher=Robert J. Kirtkpatrick }}
The Annual Review noted on his death that he was an artist of repute who exhibited at the Royal Academy on several occasions.{{ cite book |last=Longman |title=The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1919: New Series: 1919 Series I |chapter=Obituary of Eminent Persons Deceased in 1919: March |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.79555/page/n497 184] |date=1920 |publisher=Longman |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.79555 |access-date=2020-02-10 }} Petherick exhibited to a limited extent.{{refn|group=note|Petheric exhibited as follows: one work at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and three works at the Royal Academy.{{r|Johnson-Greutzner-1986-399}}}} Four of his works are in public art collections in the UK.{{ cite web |title=Horace William Petherick |website=Art UK |url=https://www.artuk.org/discover/artists/petherick-horace-william-18391919 |access-date=2020-02-12 }}
Work as an illustrator
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His first work as an illustrator was in 1868, but it was only in the early 1870s that he started to attract large amounts of work. He illustrated well over 100 books in his career. He illustrated many young children's books, as well as a few books for young adults. He was one of the illustrators for The Savage Club Papers (1897).{{ cite book |editor-last=Muddock |editor-first=J. E. |editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Herbert |title=The Savage Club Papers |date=1905-03-11 |publisher=Hutchinson |location=London |hdl=2027/nyp.33433076082738 }} He acted as technical illustrator for his own books on the violin. From about 1890, he seems to have done less illustration work, and none at all from 1900, except of his own violin books, and violins provided a second career for him.{{ cite book |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Robert J. |title=The Men Who Drew For Boys (And Girls): 101 Forgotten Illustrators of Children's Books: 1844-1971 |chapter=H. Petherick |pages=347 |date=1905-07-11 |publisher=Robert J. Kirtkpatrick }}
Writers he illustrated for included:{{ cite web |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Robert J. |title=Horace Petherick |website=Bear Alley |date=2019-02-10 |url=https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2019/02/horace-petherick.html |access-date=2020-02-08 }}
- Clemens Brentano, a German poet and novelist
- Christabel Rose Coleridge, who wrote improving stories for children
- Harry Collingwood, who wrote boy's adventure stories (no novels illustrated, only serials and short stories).
- Georgiana Marion Craik, who wrote for young women mostly, but also for girls,
- Anna Harriett Drury, who wrote conventional romances as well as books for boys
- Evelyn Everett-Green, who moved from pious stories for children, through historical romances, to adult romances under a range of pseudonyms
- George Manville Fenn, who wrote mainly for young adults
- G.A. Henty, who wrote mainly boys adventure stories set in historical contexts
- Emily Sarah Holt, who wrote mainly on historical themes, often with a strong Protestant religious element
- W.H.G. Kingston, who wrote boy's adventure stories
- L. T. Meade, a prolific Irish writer of stories for girls
- Laura Valentine, who wrote the Aunt Louisa series as well as other books for young children
- Lucy Wheelock, who translated the Swiss stories of Johanna Spyri, as well as writing stories for young children
