Paul George Konody

“ Having returned to London in 1876, he was sent on a purchasing tour through Turkey, Syria, and Greece, where he acquired many valuable objects for the South Kensington Museum. A similar mission took him in 1879 to Spain, Italy, and Germany, after having acted in the preceding year as architect of the Indian section and commercial agent to the Indian government at the Paris Exhibition. In 1880 he arranged the Indian collections at South Kensington, and after spending two years as special commissioner in India, became keeper of the India Museum at South Kensington in 1883. ”

“ Ernest received his general education at Rugby and Berlin, and subsequently studied art at Düsseldorf under Horace Vernet's pupil, Professor Hünten, and in London under Alfred Borron Clay [q. v.] . In 1874 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, the subject of his picture being ‘A Retreat: Episode in the Franco-German War.’ From that time to the year before his death he was rarely absent from the annual exhibitions at Burlington House. ”

“ He had all the qualifications to make him a great pictorial illustrator. He had the gift to represent the stirring episodes of past history in dramatic intensity, but was rather deficient, especially towards the end of his career, in the sensuous appreciation of colour. ”

“ An exhibition of his works was held at the Brazenose Club, Manchester, in May 1889, and there was a memorial exhibition at the Alpine Club Gallery in October 1911.
Nearly the whole of his substantial fortune was bequeathed to foreign missionary societies. The cartoons for the windows at Eaton were presented by his executors to the Young Men's Christian Association for their new London headquarters in Tottenham Court Road. A portfolio of Shields's studies for his 'Pilgrim's Progress' designs was purchased for the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1912. ”

“ MacWhirter is represented at the National Gallery of British Art by 'June in the Austrian Tyrol.' In the Royal Academy diploma gallery is his 'Nature's Archway.' 'A Fallen Giant' is at the municipal art gallery, Pietermaritzburg, Natal ”

“ For some time he attended the evening classes, first at the Birkbeck Institution, then known as the Mechanics' Institute, and subsequently at South Kensington, where he worked with such application that he soon found employment as a designer of calicoes in a London firm. ”

“ In the next year he undertook the first of what proved to be annual journeys to the Continent, visiting on this occasion some of the old cities of Germany, Tyrol, and the Salzkammergut. A picture of Lake Gosan, which was a fruit of this journey, was bought by the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. ”

“ In 1860 he received an important though badly paid commission for a series of drawings illustrating the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' some plates for which he sent to Ruskin in 1861, and they evoked the art critic's enthusiastic praise. ”

“ MacWhirter is also represented at the Walker art gallery, Liverpool, the Derby corporation art gallery, and the municipal galleries of Dundee, Aberdeen, and Hull.
A portrait of the artist as a young man (1871) , by John Pettie, R.A., and a later one in water-colours by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, R.A., are in the possession of his family. MacWhirter was also painted by Mr. ”

“ In 1869 he was sent by the museum to superintend the reproduction of mosaics in Venice, Florence, and Rome, and in 1872 he went to Alexandria to supervise the decorative work at St. Mark's Church. In 1874 he was appointed H.M. superintendent of works for the consular buildings in Teheran, where he spent the following two years, completing during this time the Roman catholic church of St. ”