Henry
Tonks
was born in Birmingham in 1862. After
being educated at Clifton College he studied
medicine at Brighton (1882-85) and London
Hospital (1885-1888). After qualifying he became a doctor at the Royal
Free Hospital in London.
Tonks also attended drawing
lessons at the London Technical Institute where
he met the artist Frederick Brown.
When Brown became principal of Slade Art School,
he convinced Tonks to give up medicine and become one of its teachers.
While at the the Slade he taught Stanley
Spencer, Mark Gertler, William
Roberts and Christopher Nevinson.
Although an outstanding teacher, Tonks made an error of judgment when
he told Nevinson that he did not have the talent to become an artist.
On the outbreak of the First World War, Tonks
returned to medicine and joined the Royal Army
Military Corps on the Western Front.
As a doctor and artist, he was selected to join the team pioneering
plastic surgery. Although still in France, Tonks was appointed principal
of the Slade Art School in 1917.
In 1918 Tonks and John Singer Sargent
were both invited to become official war artists. They both witnessed
men being treated for blindness after a mustard
gas attack. Whereas Sargent painted Gassed,
Tonks produced An Advanced Dressing Station
in France. Tonks also completed another painting with a
medical theme while on the Western Front,
An Underground Casualty Clearing Station
(1918).
After the war Tonks returned to the Slade Art
School. He continued to paint and his most well-known work, Saturday
Night in the Vale, was completed just before his retirement
in 1930. Henry Tonks died in 1937.
Henry Tonks, An
Advanced Dressing Station (1918)
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