Sir George Alexander (George Samson)

Inscriptionback to top

Signed in watercolour, lower left: 'Bernard Partridge';
dated in chalk below signature: 'M.cm ix';
inscr. in ink, top right: 'Mr GEORGE ALEXANDER'.

This portraitback to top

This watercolour shows George Alexander in full flow in an unidentified part. The low viewpoint suggests the artist got the pose from a seat in the stalls; the finished work was subsequently painted in the studio. [1] Bernard Partridge seriously considered a stage career himself and, like Alexander before him, worked with Sir Henry Irving’s Lyceum Company. In the end an opportunity to join the staffers at Punch helped him decide for art, but he remained stage struck. Marion Harry Spielmann in his history of Punch (1895) observed the quandary: ‘It is because Mr. Partridge’s love for the stage is stronger than for the pencil that the invitation to contribute to Punch, and in 1892, his promotion to the regular Staff, did not arouse in him any great enthusiasm at the time. Soon, however, he warmed up to his work.’ [2]

The drawing is dated 1909. At the end of that year the St James’s Theatre staged a triumphant revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, and it is possible the drawing shows Alexander in his role as John Worthing. [3]

NPG 3663 is one of a collection of fifteen works on paper purchased by the National Portrait Gallery from the artist’s widow Lady Partridge, in August 1949, at one guinea each. The other fourteen are black-and-white work, predominantly crayon, made for a later Punch series, ‘Mr. Punch’s Personalities’, published between 1926 and 1929.

Carol Blackett-Ord

Footnotesback to top

1) ‘Sitting in the stalls and catching a likeness on a first night is a knack’ (Price 1957, p.163).
2) Spielmann 1895, p.565.
3) The Importance of Being Earnest opened 1 Dec. 1909. Alexander also appeared that year in Colonel Smith (opened 23 Apr.) and The Nursery Governess (opened 3 May). He did not act in Mid-Channel (opened 2 Sept.) and in Lorimer Sabiston (opened 9 Nov.) he appeared bearded (NPG 3663 shows him clean shaven).

Physical descriptionback to top

Whole-length standing, to left, wearing white tie and pin-striped trousers, right hand on breast, declaiming.

Conservationback to top

Conserved, 1982.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from Lady Partridge, August 1949.

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