Thomas Eyre Macklin RBA (30 March 1863 – 1 August 1943) was a British painter in oils and watercolour, illustrator, sculptor and designer of monuments, who signed his works T. Eyre Macklin or T.E. Macklin.
After a promising career at various art schools, including the Royal Academy, in the late 19th century Macklin produced Romantic black-and-white illustrations for books, numerous landscapes, figurative paintings and civic portraits, all of which came to the attention of local newspapers in his native Newcastle upon Tyne. In the 20th century he concentrated on Art Deco monuments and other sculpture, his best-known works being the South African War Memorial in Newcastle, the Bangor Memorial, County Down, and the Land Wars Memorial at Auckland, New Zealand.
According to Macklin, his ancestors were from County Donegal. He was the son of John Eyre Macklin, a soldier, journalist and landscape painter; both were Newcastle-born. Macklin married writer Alice Martha "Alys" Philpott and they had one child, but she later petitioned for divorce on the grounds of infidelity. He had bouts of illness during later life and died in Devon in 1943.
Background Parentage According to Thomas Eyre Macklin, he was "descended from an old Donegal family". He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 30 March 1863, (includes biography of Macklin) the son of Lieutenant John Eyre Macklin (b. Newcastle 1834) a non-commissioned officer of the 10th Brigade, Royal Artillery, on foreign service (1853–1870). J.E. Macklin was a lieutenant of the English Garibaldian Volunteers (1860–1861), and he was a landscape painter and Newcastle journalist. Macklin's mother was Margaret E. Charlton (Carlisle 1838 – Belfast 30 September 1924). She was the adopted child of an agricultural labourer.1851 England census HO/107/2429 p.1 Warwick (village), Cumberland
Training Encouraged by his father, Macklin "showed a remarkable aptitude for drawing" from childhood, and "devoted himself to art" from the age of ten, being one of W. Cosens Way's students at the Newcastle School of Art, where he was "one of the most successful pupils ... On one occasion he carried off the four head prizes of the year". Macklin was selling his pictures by the age of thirteen. In 1884 he moved from Newcastle to London to sketch antiques at the British Museum, and trained at Calderon's Art School until 1887. After that, he studied at John Dawson Watson's studio. In 1887 he passed the Royal Academy Schools' entrance examinations at the age of 23 years. Macklin was lucky to be accepted at the Royal Academy. "He had spent three months on a special drawing to be submitted to the examiners of the Academy, but it mysteriously disappeared". There was no time to search for it, and he spent another fourteen days reproducing it, with "one hour to spare" before the entrance assessment. In 1888 he won a Royal Academy silver medal for "the best copy of an oil painting". Throughout his training, Macklin was "a diligent student". In 1891, he was living alone at the back of King's Road, in Chelsea.
Personal life Macklin married Alice Martha "Alys" Philpott (d. before 1939) on 25 November 1893 at St George's, Hanover Square. They had one child, a son, born in Brittany on 4 May 1895. Alys was a leading member of the Poetry Society, and was a writer for the Newcastle Chronicle under the pen name Margery Lee. Alys also wrote various books, including Greuze (1902), and Twenty-nine Tales from the French (1922). Following his marriage, Macklin worked in Brittany and Paris for some years, "painting pictures of peasant life", being still there in 1895, and 1896. After returning to Newcastle, Macklin and his wife Alys lived in a "little old cottage hidden in a garden behind a high stone wall in Osborne Road". In 1911 the Census finds Macklin lodging at 139 Marylebone Road, NW London, and working on his own account as an artist, painter and sculptor; it says he had had one child, who was still living. Alys and Thomas Eyre Macklin were separated in 1917. Alys petitioned for restitution of conjugal rights, then petitioned for divorce in 1918. They received their decree nisi in November 1918 on account of his abandonment, and his infidelity at the Black Rabbit Inn, Arundel, Sussex.
Macklin occasionally suffered financial difficulties. In 1928 he was sued for £400 (), said by the plaintiff William Edward Pearson to be moneys lent and not repaid. Macklin responded that the sum was not lent, but was payment for five portraits painted. The judgement by Mr Justice Rowlatt was for the plaintiff, and Macklin had to repay £51 () plus costs. The Newcastle Journal commented that in Newcastle, "the local talent did not get all the commissions it deserved and London men of brush and palette pouched guineas which would materially have assisted to keep the wolf from studio doors in Pilgrim and other streets of the city ... [although] Macklin got a goodly share of Northern commissions".
In 1929, Macklin had influenza and bronchitis, described as "a serious illness". In 1939, he was a patient in hospital, but had been living in Watford. He described himself as a widower, artist and sculptor. He died at "Kersbrook", Budleigh Salterton, Devon on 1 August 1943.
Career and works Besides being an illustrator and sculptor, Macklin was a painter in oils and watercolours, and he produced landscapes, figurative pictures and portraits. He also designed posters. When Macklin returned from Paris he set up a studio in London. He later had a studio at 22 Blackett Street, in Newcastle, where he would sometimes exhibit his work. During the 19th century, Macklin's painting style was Romantic, but one observer had other ideas about it: "His charlady noticed a skyscape hanging in his studio. 'I don't think much of that', she observed severely, 'it's too like them Turner things. In 1922, the Daily Mirror selected Macklin and two other artists to judge its beauty competition's junior section for children. In 1903, the Newcastle Daily Chronicle gave the public a view of the inside of the Blackett Street studio:
The portrait of Sir Charles Frederick Hamond is now complete in [Macklin's] studio ... It is a strong, characteristic portrait, some nine feet high ... In addition to the portrait, Mr Macklin, who is accomplished in modelling, has executed a bust of Sir Charles which, also, is an admirable likeness, forcible and expressive. Mr Macklin studied modelling for some years, and is reviving his interest in that branch of art. The works in his studio include a fine bust of the late Mr John Hall ... A death mask was taken, when Mr Hall died, and this has helped Mr Macklin considerably. The bust has a good pose, and is in every way excellent. In addition, Mr Macklin is busy upon a large portrait of Mr Alexander Laing which is intended to be hung in the new Laing Art Gallery.
Exhibitions Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Macklin exhibited 17 works at the Royal Academy (RA) from 1889 when he submitted a portrait of a Lady titled From the Sunny South. In 1900 he contributed Perros, Brittany, "a scene in Britanny, an effective piece of painting". His portrait of Blanche was accepted for the Summer Exhibition in 1891, and his painting of An English Girl was "hung on the line" there in 1892. In 1893 his portrait of his future wife, Miss Alys Philpott, was accepted for the Summer Exhibition. The Newcastle Chronicle said, "Every one who has seen Mr Macklin's work will probably conclude that it is a just tribute to his ability and perseverance. Probably the subject has inspired the artist. A portrait of a lady of considerable personal attractions certainly affords a painter a good opportunity to display his power. And it can safely be said that Mr Macklin has risen to the occasion". In 1898 Macklin had three paintings on show at the RA: Ripe, Portofino, Mediterranean, and Piazza Garibaldi, Ripallo. Ripe was a "skilful treatment of an orchard scene with a young woman wheeling a barrow". Macklin sold its copyright for reproduction in photogravure.
In 1899 it was mistakenly reported that Macklin had two portraits and two landscapes hung at the RA: Helen ("there is some vivacity in his Helen"), Mrs W.H. Dircks, A Bend of the Tees ("a simple but satisfying landscape study"), and Streatley Mill on the Thames ("a water-colour drawing with an excellent moonlit sky"). There are two versions of what happened to the four pictures. The first, testified in the Academy's catalogue, says that Macklin had three hung that year (not including Mrs Dircks), and his wife Alys had one picture on the line: Priez Pour Eux. The second version, according to the Newcastle Daily Chronicle, says that there were three oil paintings and one watercolour: Streatley Mill ("managed with telling effect"), A Bend of the Tees ("not so successful" and looking "unfinished"), and portraits of a young woman in blue and a child with a bunch of flowers, both titled Helen. "Mrs A.E. Macklin, the artist's wife, is included among the addresses in the catalogue as an exhibitor, though she is not represented by any work, the explanation being that although a painting from her was accepted ... it could not be found". In 1902, Macklin contributed a landscape painting of Lincoln to the Summer Exhibition.
Other exhibitions In February 1882, Macklin exhibited an unknown work at the Scottish Academy. In 1892, Macklin's submission to Newcastle Art Gallery drew attention: "All that need be said with regard to Thomas Eyre Macklin's little landscape, The Heart of England – a cottage with trees and reedy pool – is that it is an exquisite gem". He also exhibited at the Paris Salon, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. In February 1893, Macklin and several other Tynesider artists exhibited at the Bewick Club. Macklin's portrait of William Glendinning was hung "in an unfortunate position for, owing to the curious lights that play about the canvas, it [was] almost impossible to obtain a fair view of it". However the Newcastle Courant saw it and declared it "too hot and purple in colour, and lacking in directness". Nevertheless that paper did approve his other work in the exhibition, a study in chalk titled Grey Eyes, which it described as "a very fine piece of work indeed". In 1895 the members exhibited there again (Macklin contributed Jeannie-Yvonne), and the Newcastle Chronicle's art critic, under the pen name of Merlin, said that they had "produced work that does honour to Tyneside and to the Bewick Club", and that Macklin's contribution was a portrait "in which he exhibit[ed] all his usual refinement of style and decided draughtsmanship. The face is very sweet". In 1903, Macklin exhibited "powerful portraits" at the Academy of Arts, Beckett Street, Newcastle. In 1905 he contributed work to the Jarrow Art Exhibition, in the Engineers' Drill Hall, Western Road, Jarrow. In 1908 Macklin exhibited his "dignified and fine" portrait of Edmund J. Browell, JP, alongside his black and white drawings, at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle.
Illustrations From 1888 until at least 1902, Macklin had illustrations published in various magazines including the Pall Mall Gazette. In 1902, Alys and Thomas Eyre Macklin together produced A Holiday Pilgrimage: the Birthplace of Renan for Pal Mall. In 1890, the Newcastle Chronicle observed cryptically that, "for some time past Mr Thomas Eyre Macklin ... has contributed high class pen and ink and other drawings to an illustrated metropolitan contemporary".