Henry Herbert La Thangue

Who was Henry Herbert La Thangue?

Henry Herbert La Thangue was an English realist rural landscape painter associated with the Newlyn School.

La Thangue was born in Croydon, Surrey, a suburb of London, and was schooled at Dulwich College where he met fellow painters Stanhope Forbes and Frederick Goodall. He studied painting first at the Lambeth School of Art and then, from 1874–79, at the Royal Academy, London, winning a gold medal for his work in 1879. This led to a prestigious scholarship for 3 years at the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Here La Thangue came under the influence of the Barbizon school of open-air landscape painters, such as Bastien-Lepage and Dagnan-Bouveret, despite the fact that his teacher was strongly critical of the movement.

Between 1881-82 La Thangue spent some time painting on the coast of Brittany, then in Donzère in the Rhone valley. He became a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883. He returned to England in 1886, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and many regional galleries.