Hacker. A name to speak with admiration.

It doesn't seem fair that the word 'hacker' has come to represent someone who breaks into systems to do damage or for the purpose of gaining illegitimate access to resources.

I'm told that such a person should be more accurately described as a 'cracker' - but there again, we're treading on eggshells.

For some of us, the foremost bearer of the name should be England's least-appreciated painter, Arthur Hacker, who moved effortlessly from the classical to impressionistic styles without losing a brushstroke of skill.

Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) was born in London, the son of Edward Hacker, the line engraver. He went to the RA Schools before studying in Paris under Leon Bonnat, who was internationally famous as a portrait painter and a lifelong friend of Degas. Bonnat was the ideal teacher for Hacker who subsequently became a fashionable portrait painter himself.

His early work consisted of genre and historical scenes, such as The Waters of Babylon and The Annunciation which was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1892.

As an indirect result of the success of this painting, he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy where he soon began teaching after partially abandoning subject painting in favour of portraiture, in which he achieved considerable success.

He was elected an Academician in 1910 and began to paint a series of London street scenes, including A Wet Night in Piccadilly Circus, which met with mixed reception from the critics who were not prepared for a painting of this nature. It was far more modern in its treatment than anything Hacker had previously produced.

In his later years, he returned to painting mythological and allegorical subjects.

Arthur Hacker died on Wednesday, 12 November, 1919 in London, where he had resided all his life.

He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey.