Vlaho Bukovac

(Croatian, 1855-1922)

Portrait of George Hepburn; Portrait of Anne Hepburn each 122.8 x 88.9cm (48 3/8 x 35in). (2)

Footnotes

Provenance
With Charles Edwards, London.
Private collection, USA (acquired from the above).
Thence by descent.

The young Dalmatian painter Vlaho Bukovac (1855-1922) studied and made his early career in Paris, enjoying an early triumph at the Salon in 1882 with his nude La Grande Iza (Beljanski Collection, Novi Sad). On the back of this success he was taken up by the English dealers Vicars Bros., who brought him to London, exhibited many of his largest paintings and introduced him to likely patrons. Two of these were shipbuilding engineers and businessmen from the north of England, Samson Fox of Leeds and Richard LeDoux of Liverpool. Besides buying Bukovac's works, these men were soon inviting the artist to their homes, where, Bukovac later wrote in his autobiography, they treated him as a gentleman. They commissioned further pictures from him, and introduced him to their own friends whose portraits Bukovac painted in turn. The patronage and friendship of Fox and LeDoux laid the foundation of Bukovac's lifelong love affair with England.

George Hepburn (1841-1909) was evidently a business friend of LeDoux's in Liverpool. Although no direct contact between them is recorded, both were highly successful men at the heart of the city's progressive shipping circles, and both lived in the affluent suburb of West Derby, an area of mansions on the fringes of Liverpool's growing sprawl of working-class terraces. Hepburn and his wife Anne, who were both Scottish, had moved to Liverpool in 1866, where George rapidly made a formidable reputation as a naval architect, first with Robert McAndrew & Co., and then on his own account. According to the author of Liverpool's 'Legion of Honour' (1893), Hepburn since coming to Liverpool had 'designed between 300 and 400 steamers'. Such was his expertise in naval matters, he was in great demand in legal cases involving the loss of ships; the Liverpool Mercury calling him 'The Judge-Maker' because three 'eminent counsel' on whose side he had appeared in trials had been raised to the bench almost immediately afterwards. Reputedly his dour and gruff exterior concealed a heart of gold, a keen sense of humour and a penchant for generous hospitality, and he was an excellent raconteur. He was also a fine shot, although he lost an eye in a shooting accident on the Scottish moors (it is unclear whether this post-dated Bukovac's portrait or whether the artist was allowed to represent a glass eye or disguise the loss altogether; contemporary and later photographs mostly show Hepburn in profile from the left). According to one obituarist, Hepburn 'was one of the first men in Liverpool to have a motor car, and when he drove that then novel equipage through the town, Liverpudlians, agape with amazement at the spectacle of a horseless vehicle, literally mobbed his vehicle'.

Little is known about his wife Anne. Her family name was Martin, she was three years older than her husband, and with him she had two daughters, Mary (born in 1872) and Lucy (born in 1878). Less than a year after sitting to Bukovac, in June 1892, she died at the age of 53. Her widower would mourn her for a decent interval, but in March 1895 he re-married the 'charming' Ada Snelson, 'daughter of a Liverpool citizen'. Is there in these contemporary words a hint that Hepburn's first wife had shared his 'Scottish' dourness, but not the more genial qualities to be associated with their domicile?

Perhaps unexpectedly, Bukovac's portraits are documented. Hepburn wrote a friendly letter to the artist on 18 August 1891 (now in the archive of Bukovac House, Cavtat, Croatia) in which he writes of the 'high quality' of the two works, evidently recently finished. Later Bukovac recalled of his stay in Liverpool during that summer with Mr and Mrs LeDoux that he had been so showered with hospitality he had managed to do very little painting. There can be no doubt, however, that LeDoux was behind these two works. It is tempting to see him, over a cigar at the club, suggesting the commission to Hepburn as a fine way to mark his fiftieth birthday that year. And from the character of the two works, their scale, their studied accuracy and their subtle insights, there is no doubt that in Bukovac's response, his artistry and professional dedication were fully engaged.

We are grateful to Alex Kidson for compiling this catalogue entry.