T.S. Eliot

Sitterback to top

• Thomas Stearns ('T.S.') Eliot (1888-1965), Poet. Sitter in 66 portraits.

Artistback to top

• John Gay (1909-1999), Photographer. Artist of 276 portraits, Sitter associated with 5 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Intellectually demanding and stylistically innovative, Eliot is a writer of outstanding importance in modern English literature, and the author of The Waste Land (1922), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), Four Quartets (1944) and The Cocktail Party (1949). Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939), a book of light verse, is the basis of the musical stage show, Cats. This portrait was taken by John Gay for a series of portraits of poets commissioned to accompany an article by Sir John Betjeman that was published in the Strand magazine in July 1948.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 199