Henry John Stock | Influences, 1905

Henry John Stock (1853-1930) is one of those minor but highly individual artists who are among the glories of the English Romantic tradition.

Born in Greek Street, Soho, in 1853, he went blind in childhood but recovered his sight on being sent to live at Beaulieu in the New Forest.

He studied at the St. Martin's School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools, and is said to have been encouraged by the engraver W.J. Linton, who took him to Italy. (It seems unlikely that this was before 1866, when Linton settled in America, since Stock would only have been thirteen at the time.

Perhaps the trip took place during one of Linton's subsequent visits to England).

In 1874, the year he began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, he became a figure-draughtsman in a firm of stained-glass artists; which one is not recorded.

He exhibited at the RA until 1910, but also supported the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (member 1880) and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (member 1881), as well as showing occasionally in the provinces and at venues such as the Dowdeswell Galleries and the Fine Art Society in London.