Leonard Raven-Hill

Identity:

Leonard Raven-Hill was a painter, illustrator and printmaker.

Life:

Raven-Hill studied at Lambeth College of Art where he met Charles Ricketts and Charles Hazlewood Shannon. He also studied with William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Aime Morot in Paris. In 1887 he made his exhibition début at Salon. His work was much influenced by that of Charles Keene.

He illustrated Kipling's 'Stalky & Co.' in the Windsor Magazine, worked for Punch as second artist to Bernard Partridge from 1896 to 1935, became the art editor of Pick-Me-Up and also founded the illustrated magazine The Unicorn in 1895. He also contributed to papers and journals such as Judy, Daily Graphic, Black & White, Butterfly, Pall Mall Budget, Illustrated London News, Minister, Rambler, Sketch, Fun, Graphic, St Paul's, Pearson's Magazine, Pall Mall Magazine and Nutshell.

Raven-Hill was an active exhibitor, showing his work in London at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Society of British Artists (a society which appointed Whistler its President in 1886), New English Art Club (a group with whom Whistler exhibited at their inaugural show in 1888) and International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers (a society that formed in 1898 with Whistler as its President). He also exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Scottish Academy, Leicester Gallery and Walker Gallery in Liverpool.

In 1889 Raven-Hill was among those included in the preliminary preparations for a meal to be held at the Criterion on 1 May in celebration of Whistler's honorary membership of the Royal Academy in Munich (#00631).

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Johnson, J., and A. Gruetzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980; Houfe, Simon, Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists, Woodbridge, 1996.