Edith Hume
1843 - 1906
Little is known about the life of Edith Hume. The first record of her work seems to be in 1843 when she was living in Fulham and exhibiting at the British Institution. Two paintings are recorded: 'Battersea Church on the Thames, Moonlight' and 'Ruins of Netley Abbey, Moonlight', neither of which typify her usual oeuvre. Her maiden name was Dunn and she married the artist Thomas O. Hume (fl.1864-1893).Hume is best known for her oil paintings of fisher folk on the beach. She was one of a large number of artists throughout Europe who painted this subject which was in huge demand at the time. The image of the peasant as being of picturesque charm was very popular with city dwellers who liked images of people who looked natural and 'close to the soil'. Her style of painting is very similar to the group of artists in Holland known as the Hague School. Their painting was primarily a movement of realism, a reaction against the famous Romantic School whose painters depicted the Dutch landscape in an ideal way. Artist such as Israels, Sadee, Scherrewitz, Mauve and Maris painted in a more impressionist style showing peasants at work in the fields or on the sea shore. Hume's work is very near in style to that of Sadee and seems closer to the Dutch artists than the English artists of the Newlyn School in England such as Stanhope Forbes, Walter Langley and Frank Bramley.
Edith Hume exhibited widely at venues in London and in the provinces and in Scotland and she remains a very popular artist.
Exhibited : Royal Academy, British Institution, Royal Society of Artists, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy, Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery