Ralph Peacock
(1868-1946), ArtistArtist of 1 portrait
by Ralph Peacock
oil on millboard, 1930s?
NPG 4234
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Andrea Titcomb Iannelli
28 May 2018, 04:24
Ralph Peacock was an English portrait painter. One of his best known works is titled. "The Sisters." It is a portrait of two sisters sitting side by side while the older of the two reads from a book. The artist presented the portrait to the Tate in 1900..
It caused a sensation at the time when an American engineer gazed at the portrait and declared to his brother that he was going to marry the younger of the two sisters. In fact, after twists and turns of romantic pursuits, he did just that.
Peter Hebard , son of Joan nee Brignall
14 March 2020, 21:12
A portrait of the sister that the US Mining Engineer ( Harold Titcomb) saw in the Tate and then married, Ethel ( my great aunt) is, I think, still on display there after being pulled out of storage some years ago. It is quite the most stunning picture in their room for that period. Ralph married the other one, Edith, in another famous picture by Ralph, “The Sisters” held in storage in the Tate.
Before the first world war he painted portraits of the "great and the good" and their children, in the style of "Bubbles", the famous Pears Soap ad. They were renowned for their accurate and detailed likenesses. Before the days of colour photography they were virtually as good.
After the first world war he became better known for these profiles, which he could do remarkably quickly and were also renowned for their likenesses. Sir Bernard Partridge was editor of Punch, where Ralph worked, presumably as a cartoonist, but I have an exhibition catalogue which shows miniatures of profiles of US President Herbert Hoover, Mrs Holman Hunt, Betty Courtauld, Sir Samuel Vesty and his wife etc but Sir Bernard's profile is the only one reproduced in colour as the frontispiece. Harold Titcomb was well connected in the US and got Ralph commissions in the wealthy world of mining and the US government.
I have an oil portrait (framed but cut down so unsigned) of the actress, Gladys Cooper, in white dress very similar to the one that can be seen on the web and profiles of my grandfather and grandmother but I have just bought a 29 page extract of the Windsor Magazine of 2007 which give a good coverage of his early life and some more interesting early works which have never come up for auction. I am happy to loan it to you to copy, as I think he had an extraordinary skill as a portrait painter and is worthy of "rediscovery", as in his early years he was a protege of Holman Hunt et al