George Percy Jacomb-Hood

George Percy Jacomb-Hood
MVO
Self-portrait, held at the National Portrait Gallery, London[1]
Born(1857-07-06)July 6, 1857
Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom
DiedDecember 11, 1929(1929-12-11) (aged 72)
Alassio, Italy
EducationTonbridge School
Slade School of Art
FamilyRobert Jacomb-Hood (father)
John Wykeham Jacomb-Hood (brother)
Signature

George Percy Jacomb-Hood (6 July 1857 – 11 December 1929) was an English painter, etcher, printmaker, and illustrator. After winning a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art in London, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in Madrid. By the 1880s he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Royal Society of British Artists. Around this time, French-trained artists in Chelsea began to develop collective studios to reflect their influences, and he was a founding member of the New English Art Club in 1886, whose early meetings were held at his studio in Manresa Road. He was also a founding member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891.

Much of Jacomb-Hood's work was as an illustrator for The Graphic and The Illustrated London News. It was through the former of these that Jacomb-Hood was sent to the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, and then the 1902 and 1905 tours of India by George, Prince of Wales, who acceded the throne as George V in 1910. Jacomb-Hood then accompanied him and Queen Mary on their 1911 Indian tour as part of their personal staff, painting the Investiture of the Star of India for Ganga Singh, a copy of which was gifted to Queen Mary by her son Edward, Prince of Wales. For his work on the tour, Jacomb-Hood was then awarded membership of the Royal Victorian Order in 1912.

During his career, Jacomb-Hood was also a council member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He illustrated many books, including The Blue Fairy Book (1889) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde; both Jacomb-Hood and Wilde lived on Tite Street in Chelsea, something Jacomb-Hood refers to in his 1925 autobiography With Brush and Pencil.

Early life and education

Jacomb-Hood was born on 6 July 1857 at Redhill in Surrey,[2][3][4] the eldest son of his parents.[5] His father was Robert Jacomb-Hood, himself a prominent railway engineer and the Resident Engineer and later a director of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.[4][6] His mother was Jane Jacomb-Hood (née Littlewood), and his parents had married on 25 November 1851.[4][7] His mother died in 1869 and his father in 1900.[8][9] His grandfather, born Robert Jacomb, had inherited an estate at Bardon Hall from a cousin, and changed his surname to 'Jacomb-Hood' as a condition of the inheritance. His father sold the estate on 13 June 1864 when he was aged 6.[10]

Jacomb-Hood was educated at Tonbridge School in 1872–73 alongside his younger brother John Wykeham.[5][11] He then won a scholarship to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, the art school of University College London.[4][1][12][13] There he studied under Edward Poynter and Alphonse Legros, and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens and John Lavery.[2][3][4] He won prizes while at the school.[12] In 1895 he was recorded, alongside his brother, as a member of the Old Tonbridgians Society.[14] He then won a travelling scholarship which allowed him to spend time in Madrid, studying the works of Diego Velázquez.[1][13]

Career

Photograph of Jacomb-Hood by Frederick Hollyer, c. 1890, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Jacomb-Hood worked with media which included engraving, painting, printmaking, and illustration.[1] After completing his education, Jacomb-Hood set up his first studio in Fulham, London.[3] Starting in 1877, Jacomb-Hood began to exhibit works in London at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Grosvenor Gallery and the gallery of the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1887 he received a jury commendation for his exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français.[1] Jacomb-Hood was a founding member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1884.[12][13] In the 1880s, Chelsea was popular with French-trained artists, who formed several studios together. Jacomb-Hood was a founding member of the New English Art Club in 1886 that came out of this movement, and he hosted their early meetings at his studio.[2][1][13][15] By this time, his gallery was located on Manresa Road.[15] He was also a founding member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891,[2][1] and began to exhibit there in the same year.[3]

Jacomb-Hood worked as an illustrator for The Illustrated London News and also The Graphic,[3][13] who gave him a number of overseas assignments,[12] including as 'artist-correspondent' at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, the first of the modern games, where he produced illustrations.[2][1] The Graphic then sent him to India in 1902 to produce illustrations of the Dehli Durbar of 1903. He was then sent again to India in 1905 to follow he George, Prince of Wales and the Princess of Wales on their royal tour.[1][12][13][16][17] At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, he won a bronze medal for his prints.[1]

Jacomb-Hood painted King George V and Queen Mary at the Delhi Durbar in his capacity as the royal artist.

As early as October 1911,[17] it became known that Jacomb-Hood would be the official artist for King George V's tour of India, which included the Delhi Durbar of 1911.[17][18][19] Jacomb-Hood formed part of the King's personal staff in this capacity, with the tour taking place in December of that year.[12][13][16][19] During the tour, he painted The Investiture of the Star of India, also known simply as The Investiture;[4][13][16] the painting depicts the investiture ceremony for the Order of the Star of India that took place in Delhi.[4] The painting was for Ganga Singh, but a copy was made for the Prince of Wales which he gifted to the Queen.[13][16] For his work, he became known in India as 'the royal artist'.[20] For his work on the tour, he was awarded membership of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1912.[2][12][16][21]

Little Red Riding Hood in the Blue Fairy Book, which Jacomb-Hood illustrated

During his career, Jacomb-Hood also served on the council of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers.[12] He wrote an autobiography in 1925, entitled With Brush and Pencil.[12][22] He exhibited at the first exhibition of the Society of Graphic Art in London in 1921.[23] After 1877, he also exhibited paintings and bronzes at the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters,[12] of which he was a member,[1] and the New Watercolour Society.[12] Jacomb-Hood illustrated many books, including Adrift in a Great City (1892), A Tale of the Dutch (1901) and The Boy's Iliad (1902).[3][20] He also illustrated Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book, published in 1889.[4] He was the Honorary Treasurer of the Chelsea Arts Club.[3] s well as his portraits of high society, he also worked with Leopold Hartley Grindon to produce illustrations of the northern working class in the style of social realism.[4] In 1989, his works were shown at The Last Romantics: The Romantic Tradition in British Art, an exhibition at the Barbican Centre.[1]

Personal life

The Drawing Room at No. 26 Tite Street, Chelsea by Jacomb-Hood depicts his wife and sister-in-law.

Jacomb-Hood was a close friend and contemporary of Henry Scott Tuke; the pair went to the Slade School of Art together, and formed part of a group of Chelsea artists.[12][24] He was also a friend of John Singer Sargent, and the pair went horse riding together.[4] On 4 June 1910, Jacomb-Hood's engagement Henrietta Kemble de Hochepied-Larpent (known simply as Rita[25] or Reta[16][26][27]) was announced in newspapers;[28] Henrietta was the fourth child of Arthur de Hochepied Larpent, 8th Baron de Hochepied.[16][26][27][29] The couple married on 28 June 1910 at the Church of the Annunciation in the parish of St Marylebone.[25][30][29] The marriage was modest, with no bridesmaids or groomsmen, and only a small reception afterwards. The couple took their honeymoon at a house in Kingsweston that had been lent to them by Philip Napier Miles, Henrietta's brother-in-law.[25][27]

Jacomb-Hood lived in various high-end properties in Kensington and Chelsea, both in West London.[4] He lived at 26 Tite Street, Chelsea from 1892 until his death.[31] Oscar Wilde was a fellow resident of Tite Street while Jacomb-Hood lived there, and his autobiography With Brush and Pencil contains many anecdotes of his experiences with Wilde.[32] He also illustrated Wilde's book The Picture of Dorian Gray.[33] In 1926, Jacomb-Hood was fined a total of 35 shillings (£1.75, equivalent to £92 in 2025[34]) for receiving a driving lesson in Battersea Park from Beatrice de Hochepied Larpent,[35] his sister in law.[29] During this lesson, he had run the car off the road and damaged the park's furniture; his instructor was fined 10 shillings (£0.50, equivalent to £26 in 2025[34]).[35]

Jacomb-Hood's entry in the University College London student records state he was a member of the Savile Club in Mayfair.[36] He died on 11 December 1929, aged 72, while on a visit to Alassio, Italy. At the time, he was living at his Tite Street address.[3][1][29] His death was widely reported in newspapers, which referred to him as a "noted" and "well-known" as an artist and a "distinguished resident of Redhill".[11][13][20][16][37][38] Jacomb-Hood's will and testament was read in March 1930; he had a net worth of £11,986,[39] equivalent to £677,000 in 2025.[34]

Investiture of the Star of India, 1911
Mrs Walter Frith, 1904
State Room, Governor's House, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1922
Two Boys in a Boat, 1887

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Bury, Stephen, ed. (2012). Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 611. ISBN 978-0-19-992305-2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Blackett-Ord, Carol. "George Percy Jacomb-Hood". National Portrait Gallery, London. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "George Percy Jacomb-Hood". Art UK. Retrieved 8 April 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Ellis-Rees, William (1 August 2021). "The Art of Survival: Jacomb-Hood and the George". London Overlooked. Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  5. 1 2 Hughes-Hughes, William, ed. (1893). The Register of Tonbridge School, from 1820 to 1886. p. 184 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ "Obituary. John Wykeham Jacomb-Hood, 1859–1914". Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 199 (1915): 452–453. 1915. doi:10.1680/imotp.1915.16234. eISSN 1753-7843. Archived from the original on 22 August 2025. Retrieved 29 July 2025 – via ICE Virtual Library.
  7. ↑ Urban, Sylvanus (1852). "The Gentleman's Magazine". The Gentleman's Magazine. 37. London: W. Pickering: 183. Archived from the original on 7 June 2025. Retrieved 7 June 2025 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Jackson, Alan A (March 1996). "The 'Diaries' of Robert Jacomb Hood, Railway Engineer" (PDF). Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society. 32 (163): 58, 60. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 December 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2026 – via Railway and Canal Historical Society.
  9. ↑ "Obituary. Robert Jacomb-Hood, 1822–1900". Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 142 (1900): 359–361. 1900. doi:10.1680/imotp.1900.18799. eISSN 1753-7843. Archived from the original on 7 June 2025. Retrieved 6 June 2025 – via ICE Virtual Library.
  10. ↑ Nuttall, Gertrude Clarke (1907). A Guide to Leicester and District. Leicester: Edward Shardlow. p. 188. Archived from the original on 7 June 2025. Retrieved 7 June 2025 – via Google Books.
  11. 1 2 Same column published in multiple newspapers:
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Stewart, Brian; Cutten, Mervyn (1997). The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920. Antique Collectors' Club. p. 274. ISBN 1-85149-173-2. Retrieved 8 April 2026 – via Internet Archive.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "The Late Mr G. P. Jacomb-Hood: Distinguished Native of Redhill". Surrey Mirror. 20 December 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ↑ Report and list of members. Old Tonbridgians. 1895. p. 66 – via Google Books.
  15. 1 2 Helmreich, Anne; Holt, Ysanne (2010). "Marketing Bohemia: The Chenil Gallery in Chelsea, 1905-1926". Oxford Art Journal. 33 (1): 47. ISSN 0142-6540 – via JSTOR.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mr Jacomb-Hood: Death of a Well-Known British Artist". The Evening News. 13 December 1929. p. 5. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. 1 2 3 "Personal and Incidental". Northern Whig. 27 October 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  18. ↑ Same column published in multiple newspapers:
  19. 1 2 "The arrival of King George V and Queen Mary at Calcutta". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  20. 1 2 3 "Mr. G. P. Jacomb-Hood: Well-Known Portrait Painter Dead: The "Royal Artist"". Nottingham Evening Post. 13 December 1929. p. 3. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  21. ↑ Same column published in multiple newspapers:
  22. ↑ "With brush and pencil by G.P. Jacomb-Hood". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  23. ↑ "List of Members", Catalogue of the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Art, London: Society of Graphic Art: 45–48, January 1921
  24. ↑ McConkey, Kenneth (2021). "Henry Scott Tuke (1858–1929): Naturalism and a national art". The British Art Journal. 22 (2): 3. ISSN 1467-2006 – via JSTOR.
  25. 1 2 3 Same report in multiple columns:
  26. 1 2 Same column published in multiple newspapers:
  27. 1 2 3 "Jacomb-Hood—Larpent". Lady's Pictorial. 23 July 1910. p. 41. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  28. ↑ Same column published in multiple newspapers:
  29. 1 2 3 4 Burke, Bernard; Burke, Ashworth P., eds. (1934). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage, and Companionage. Burke's Peerage Ltd. p. 2591.
  30. ↑ "George Percy Jacomb Hood in the Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1941". The London Archives. 28 June 1910 – via Ancestry.
  31. ↑ "The Drawing Room at No. 26 Tite Street, Chelsea: A Portrait of the artist's wife and sister-in-law". Christie's. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  32. ↑ Kingston, Angela (2016). Cox, Devon (ed.). "Devon Cox. The Street of Wonderful Possibilities: Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street". The Wildean (49): 113, 116. ISSN 1357-4949 – via JSTOR.
  33. ↑ Giudicelli, Xavier (2025), "Illustrating Dorian Gray: The Contingent Ephemerality of Beauty", in Kaye, Richard A (ed.), The Picture of Dorian Gray in the Twenty-First Century (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 96, doi:10.1093/9780190659066.003.0006, ISBN 978-0-19-065906-6, retrieved 8 August 2026 – via Oxford Academic
  34. 1 2 3 UK Consumer Price Index inflation figures from 1209–2024 based on data from "Inflation calculator". Bank of England. London. 18 February 2026. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  35. 1 2 "Motor Car in a Flower Bed". Chelsea News and General Advertiser. 23 April 1926. p. 5. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  36. ↑ "George Percy Jacomb-Hood in the University College London student records, 1828–1954". University College London. 1875–1929 – via Ancestry.
  37. ↑ "Noted Artist Dead: Mr Jacomb-Hood's Frank Reminiscences". Daily Express. 14 December 1929. p. 3. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  38. ↑ "Death of Mr George Percy Jacomb-Hood". The Scotsman. 14 December 1929. p. 15. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  39. ↑ "Wills and Estates". The Scotsman. 25 March 1930. p. 6. Retrieved 8 August 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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