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Sir
Hugh
Allen
John
Singer
Sargent
-- American painter
1925
Oxford Bach Choir,
New College, Oxford
Charcoal on paper "Mug"
Size?
Jpg: Ebay
From:
www.britannica.com
Sir Hugh Allen (1869, Reading, Berkshire, Eng. - 1946, Oxford,
Oxfordshire) He was an organist and musical educator who exerted a
far-reaching influence on the English musical life of his time.
Allen was an organ scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge, and later
held organist's posts at Ely cathedral (1898–1901) and New College,
Oxford (1901–18). In 1918 he became director of the Royal College of
Music, London.
(www.britannica.com)
From: Scott Thomas Buckle
sco tt bu ckle@btopenworld.com
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2005
Yesterday evening I
stumbled across a copy of Cyril Bailey's 1948 biography of Hugh Percy
Allen. The Sargent drawing is reproduced as a frontispiece 'by
permission of the Oxford Bach Choir' which supports the 1956 Boston
catalogue which states that the portrait was at New College, Oxford.
The biography contains several photographs and caricatures of 'H.P.A'
(as he is referred to in the text). I have enclosed scans of two
photographic portraits of the subject, for comparison with the Sargent
drawing.
Here's an extract from the book which may be of interest:
Underneath
the ferocity lay a large humanity, which showed itself in benevolence
and geniality. The two aspects succeeded one another with incredible
rapidity; indeed they were sometimes almost simultaneous. Sargent
brought this out in his drawing of which Dr. Hely-Hutchinson in his
broadcast gave a brief but vigorous description: 'To start with there
is an overwhelming impression of bigness; then the chin shows his
strength. But now look at his eyes, one of them glaring, the other one
twinkling. Inevitably on a first introduction it was the glare that
impressed one, the twinkle might perhaps come out in a pat on the back
or a few words of encouragement. H.P.A used himself to describe his
first meeting with Sargent, who exclaimed: 'You look a ferocious sort
of man, but I think I trace a touch of kindness somewhere.' 'And I
replied: "Mr. Sargent, you are much mistaken. I am made of the milk of
human kindness, but when roused-".'
Note:
Special thanks to
Scott
Thomas Buckle, from London, a friend
of the JSS Gallery, for sending me photos and information on this
drawing.
From: Scott
Thomas Buckle
sc ot tbu ckle@btopenworld.com
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005
Hi Natasha,
I was surfing eBay this week, and came across the following item:
ebay.com
(Editor's note - the images are those above and
the text read as follows: "The
artist has wonderful use of
pencil to capture the stern moustached gentleman's balding head; this
possibly being a military gentleman. There are areas of light and shade
and these are produced well. The sketch has some minor signs of foxing
and the card is a little dirty. The picture comes unframed. The card
measures 12.5 inches by 17.5 inches. The piece is signed to the lower
left hand side with what appears to be John Lalavyuot and dated 1925 to
the lower right hand corner.")
I already knew of your excellent site, so I looked through it, but
couldn't find an image of the sitter - so was hopeful that this might
be a lost drawing by JSS. Then I checked through my old copy of
'Sargent's Boston' to find out if any other portraits were drawn by him
in 1925. Amongst those that fell into that category was that of Sir
Hugh Percy Allen and I found this image of him on the net:
www.britannica.com
Having confirmed the identity of the sitter, I inadvertently had put
into question the authenticity of the drawing in my mind. So I checked
out the Sargent files at the Witt Library.
Although they had no image of Sir Hugh Allen, they did have several
other repros of drawings printed on similarly large cream paper. None
of these had any additional inscriptions save for the artist's
signature, so to the untrained eye they might appear at first glance to
be actual
drawings.
Since you are the authority on Sargent and quite an enthusiast, I
thought that you might find this little anecdote of interest, and you
can doubtlessly borrow the eBay image for your site.
In your researches, have you come across the book or folio
that these large images originate from? A copy of that certainly would
be worth acquiring.
Yours investigatively,
Scott Thomas Buckle
From: Natasha
I’m not really sure if I remember seeing anything about a printing of
some of his “Mugs” – in a portfolio type thing. Now his Memorial
Exhibition had large – well . . . . book size images of his
paintings – all black and white, of course. It may be something like
that around the time of his death – published in London -- but I’m
guessing.
It's fortuitous that you wrote because I am on
the cusp of launching an extensive spread on John Lalavyuot -- the man
and his art.
I am most appreciatively your report reader,
Natasha
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