Arthur H Buckland

ARTHUR H. BUCKLAND

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Arthur H. Buckland (sometimes referred to as A.H. Buckland) was another artist who was both a highly-regarded painter of landscapes, portraits and genre pictures and an illustrator, particularly noted for his black and white plates for a number of new editions of classic novels.

He was born on 22 June 1870 in Taunton, Somerset, and christened Arthur Herbert Buckland. His father, Joseph (1844-1895) was an ironmonger; his mother, Helen (née Hadduck, 1837-1908) was the daughter of a grocer. Arthur was the second of four children  –  two of his brothers, Charles (born in 1868) and Frank (born in 1874) followed their father in the family business.  The third brother, John (born in 1871) joined the Post Office. The family lived for many years at 4 East Street, Taunton.

Arthur received his artistic training at the Taunton School of Art, receiving a silver medal in 1888 for being the year’s best student. After leaving Taunton in around 1890, he spent three years or so at the Academie Julian in Paris (a private art school founded in 1867). He returned to England, and then, in June 1897, he travelled to America, where he married Louisa Almira Abrey (born on 9 June 1873 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of a merchant), at the Church of the Transfiguration in Manhattan, New York, on 10 September 1897. Arthur then brought his wife to England, settling at 3 St. John’s Wood Studios, Hampstead, re-marrying Louisa at the Marylebone Registry Office on 14 January 1898. They subsequently moved to 86 Adelaide Road, Hampstead, where, in 1901, Buckland was sufficiently well-off to be able afford a domestic servant, a cook and a housemaid.

In the meantime, Buckland had begun his career as a professional artist. He exhibited with Royal Society of British Artists in 1894, and in 1895 he began a long association as an illustrator with The Pall Mall Magazine (an offshoot of The Pall Mall Gazette, which had been launched in 1893). Two years later, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and went on to exhibit at the Fine Art Society, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

In 1897 he began a long association with the publisher Methuen & Co., for example illustrating most of its “Little Blue Books for Children” series (such as The Beechnut Book by Jacob Abbott, A School Year by Netta Syrett, and The Lost Ball by Thomas Cobb). In 1900, he also began working with Collins, for whom he illustrated re-issues of novels by authors such as Charles Dickens and the Brontë sisters. He also illustrated a few books for Blackie & Son, including two school stories by Angela Brazil and Lilian F. Wevill, and Blackie’s Children’s Annual.

In 1901 he began another long relationship with The Illustrated London News, which published his work until at least 1926. Other magazines and periodicals to which he contributed were Cassell’s Magazine, The Sphere, Pearson’s Magazine, The Graphic, The Sketch, The Windsor Magazine, The Art Journal, The Artist, The Christian Realm and The Bystander.

On 6 November 1906 he filed for a divorce on the grounds that his wife was incapable of consummating their marriage. By then, the couple had separated, with Buckland remaining at 86 Adelaide Road and his wife living at 23 Milford Road, Leytonstone. The marriage was formally ended on 18 November 1907.

Buckland subsequently appears to have suffered a slight downturn in his fortunes, as he appears in the 1911 census living in a boarding house at 13 Lady Somerset Road, St. Pancras. He was still working as an artist, although while his last credited book illustrations appeared in 1912, he continued to supply illustrations for magazines.

In 1912 he married Marian Ethel Richardson (born in 1875 in Crewe, Cheshire, the daughter of a commercial clerk, and who had once worked as an artist’s model), in Barnet, where the couple lived for over 25 years. They had one child, Audrey Helen, born on 22 November 1914.

It is not known what, if anything, Buckland did during the First World War. His name does not seem to appear in any newspaper advertisements for magazines or periodicals until 1926, for work in The Illustrated London News and The Sketch. In 1939, he moved back to Taunton, where he lived for a while Marian and his brother Joseph (then retired) and his wife in Ashbury South Road. He was still working as an artist, with his daughter working as a masseuse. Within a year or two he had moved to Lyme Regis, where he lived at Pyne House, Broad Street; 5 Cobb Terrace; and finally at “Kincora”, West Hill, where he died on 22 December 1948, leaving an estate valued at £7,633 (around £280,000 in today’s terms). His wife died at the same address six years later, leaving an estate worth just £341.

PUBLICATIONS

Books illustrated by A.H. Buckland
The Channings by Mrs Henry Wood, Richard Bentley, 1897 (re-issue)
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. by W.M. Thackeray, Methuen & Co., 1899 (re-issue)
Mrs Halliburton’s Troubles by Mrs Henry Wood, Collins, 1900 (re-issue)
The Channings by Mrs Henry Wood, Collins, 1900 (re-issue)
A Gallant Quaker by Margaret H. Robertson, Methuen & Co., 1900
The Air-Gun, or How the Mastermans and Dobson Major Nearly Lost Their Holiday by T. Hilbert, Methuen & Co., 1901
The Beechnut Book by Jacob Abbott, Methuen & Co., 1901
The Castaways of Meadow Bank by Thomas Cobb, Methuen & Co., 1901
The Wouldbegoods by E. Nesbit, T. Fisher Unwin, 1901
Jair the Apostate by A.G. Hales, Methuen & Co., 1902
The Inca’s Treasure by Ernest Glanville, Methuen & Co., 1902 (re-issue)
A School Year by Netta Syrett, Methuen & Co., 1902
The Treasure of Princegate Priory by Thomas Cobb, Methuen & Co., 1902
The Peeles at the Capital by Roger Ashton, Methuen & Co., 1902
The Lost Ball by Thomas Cobb, Methuen & Co., 1903
Mrs Barberry’s General Shop by Roger Aswhton, Methuen & Co., 1903
The Quest of the Luck by Lewis Ramsden, Collins, 1904
The Virgin and the Scales by Constance Cotterell, Methuen & Co., 1905
The Castle of the Shadows by Mrs C.N. Williamson, Methuen & Co., 1905
The Dryad by Justin Huntly M’Carthy, Methuen & Co., 1905
The Weans at Rowallan by Miss K. Fitzpatrick, Methuen & Co., 1905
The Valley of the Shadow by William Le Queux, Methuen & Co., 1905
Mr Galer’s Business by William Pett Ridge, Methuen & Co., 1905 (re-issue)
The Fortunes of Philippa by Angela Brazil, Blackie & Son, 1906
Little Susy Stories by E. Prentiss, Collins, 1906
The Lost Explorers: A Story of the Trackless Desert by Alexander Macdonald, Blackie & Son, 1907
Betty’s First Term by Lilian F. Wevill, Blackie & Son, 1907
The Botor Chaperon by C.N. & A.M. Williamson, Methuen & Co., 1907
Tales of Two People by Anthony Hope, Methuen & Co., 1907 (re-issue)
Flower o’ the Orange, and Other Stories by Agnes and Egerton Castle, Methuen & Co., 1908
Anne’s Terrible Good Nature, and Other Stories for Children by E.V. Lucas, Chatto & Windus, 1908
The Great Miss Driver by Anthony Hope, Methuen & Co., 1908
The Scarlet Runner by C.N. & A.M. Williamson, Methuen & Co., 1908
The Emperor of the Air by George Glendon, Methuen & Co., 1910
Cross and Dagger: The Crusade of the Children, 1212 by W. Scott Durrant, Methuen & Co., 1910
The Master Girl by Ashton Hilliers, Methuen & Co., 1910
The Golden Silence by C.N. & A.M. Williamson, Methuen & Co., 1911
Fire in Stubble by Baroness Orczy, Methuen & Co., 1912
Nicolette: A Tale of Old Provence by Baroness Orczy, Methuen & Co., 1912
The Guests of Hercules by C.N. & A.M. Williamson, Methuen & Co., 1912

Re-issues of famous novels, all published by Collins – dates not known
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
Waverley, or ‘Tis Sixty Years Since by Walter Scott
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Vilette by Charlotte Brontë
Reprinted Pieces by Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
Stepping Heavenward by Mrs Prentiss
Old Jack by W.H.G. Kingston