Edward George Handel Lucas

E G Handel Lucas (1861–1936) was an English artist. He was hailed as a child prodigy and exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists from the age of 14 and at the Royal Academy of Arts from age 17. He is best known for astonishingly realistic flower paintings and still lifes painted in the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s. His major works took anything from 6 to 16 months to paint.

Demand for his work fell when new artistic styles emerged in the 1900s. He fell into debt, a situation made worse when he became interested in photographic reproduction and invented a new printing process. The company he formed to perfect this process crashed and he lived the rest of his life in poverty. His paintings were forgotten about after his death, but interest revived when some started appearing in auction houses from 1972 onwards.

Upbringing

Edward George Handel Lucas was born in Croydon on 4 May 1861. So Lucas did not benefit from a classical or advanced education, but there is evidence of him drawing and painting from age 6 or 7 and receiving some encouragement from the school. He "studied the antique" at the British Museum

Early career, 1880s

Lucas continued to paint flower pictures as his career developed and also more elaborate still lifes. These were notable for an astonishing level of detail and realism across the whole picture. A good example is Dust Crowns All, which is described in a lengthy article about Lucas's career to date, published in The Croydon Advertiser in 1887. The writer says "to see the delicacy of the work one has to use a magnifying glass, and the more closely it is examined, the more beauty will be found". But it did not sell and the time spent painting it exhausted his capital. Thus started a cycle on indebtedness, borrowing money from family and friends to keep him going while he painted a new work, promising to pay them back when he sold it. His worst fears of 1887 were coming true!

Ironically his prime in technical terms coincided with public taste moving away from the realism that Lucas prized. The Impressionists and their successors were becoming popular but Lucas dismissed them in strong terms and preferred to stick to his roots, painting "straight from nature".

Debt and misfortune

In 1908 Lucas suffered a bout of pneumonia and a few months later a nervous breakdown caused by worry over unpaid rates.

Lucas suffered a fatal heart attack after his wife, Mary, was knocked down and injured by a car. Handel would probably not have approved, given his strong negative views on modernist art. Handel died very early in Edwin's career and his biggest influence was contributing to family pressure on Edwin not to rely on art as his sole means of making a living.