George Bernard Shaw; Edith Sitwell; Sir Osbert Sitwell; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Bt

Identify sitters

© reserved; collection National Portrait Gallery, London

1 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Make a donation Close

George Bernard Shaw; Edith Sitwell; Sir Osbert Sitwell; Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Bt

by Robert Stewart Sherriffs
ink, 1927-1930
15 3/4 in. x 11 3/8 in. (401 mm x 289 mm) paper size
Purchased, 1978
Reference Collection
NPG D4468

Sittersback to top

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Clerk, Honor, The Sitwells, 1994 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 October - 22 January 1995), p. 239 Read entry

    The inter-war fashion for being publicly caricatured in the latest 'Post-Cubist' styles is amusingly satirised by E. F. Benson in his description of Lucia's desperate attempts to be drawn by Herbert Alton in Lucia in London. Sacheverell's Sitwelliana scrapbook is full of more or less recognisable caricatures culled from the multitude of illustrated magazines of the period. The cartoon by Robert Sherriffs (1906-1960) may have been intended for Tatler or the Sketch, though does not seem finished. It clearly mirrors a period when the Sitwell aesthetic was under a cloud and suggests that they, like George Bernard Shaw, will weather the storm; a connection with the poor reception of their only dramatic work, All at Sea, seems plausible.

    Osbert describes in reverent detail his first meeting with Shaw in 1917 at a dinner at Roman's hosted by the distinguished journalists H. W. Nevison and H. W. Massingham.1 Shaw seems to have known all the Sitwells slightly; Georgia, who met him in the South of France in 1928, noted that he was 'very amiable about Edith and "Sitwellism" in general'.2

    1 Osbert Sitwell, Laughter in the Next Room, 1949, pp 110-112.

    2 Sarah Bradford, Sacheverell Sitwell, Splendours and Miseries, 1993, p 189.

Events of 1927back to top

Current affairs

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, acknowledging the full independence of the Irish Free State, led at the time by W.T. Cosgrave, the the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State.

Art and science

The BBC gains its Royal Charter making it a public corporation and a public service broadcaster accountable to its audience. John Reith became the first Director General with the directive to 'inform, educate and entertain.'

International

Stalin expels Leon Trotsky from the Soviet Communist Party, giving himself greater control of the party and country by ousting opposition elements.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.