SWINBURNE (ALGERNON CHARLES)
STAPLES (ROBERT PONSOBY) Portrait of Algernon Charles Swinburne, head and shoulders, oil on canvas, signed ('R. Ponsonby Staples') top left, approx. 610 x 500mm. (24 x 19.5in.), framed, [c.1900]
Footnotes:
Portrait of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) by Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples (1853-1943) whose works were first exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1875. He 'made his name by a succession of group portraits of participants in late Victorian public events' (ODNB), the most famous of which is The Ideal Cricket Match, now hanging in the Pavilion at Lords Cricket Ground. An exhibition of his portraits, One Hundred Men and Women of the Time, as a souvenir of the century, was held in 1900, for which the current portrait was probably painted. A chalk portrait by Staples of Swinburne, in very similar pose, is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Provenance: Christie's, London, 20 November 1988, lot 156.