John Lawrence Toole

Inscriptionback to top

Inscr. lower left: ‘In the Court’;
inscr. lower centre: ‘Mr J.L. Toole’.

This portraitback to top

This is one of a large collection in the National Portrait Gallery of drawings by Sydney Prior Hall depicting the personalities attending the Parnell Commission at the Royal Courts of Justice in 1889 (see NPG Portrait Set ‘The Parnell Commission, 1888-9: drawings by Sydney Prior Hall’). [1] Many of the sketches were printed in the Graphic, that of Toole appearing on 23 February 1889. It shows Toole holding an eyeglass to his right eye, the better to observe the court proceedings. A fainter sketch of Toole’s head without the hand is seen upper left.

A drawing of Toole at the Parnell Commission by Frederick Pegram is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, E.595-1952.


Dr Jan Marsh

Footnotesback to top

1) For members of Parliament (Lords and Commons) drawn by Hall observing the Parnell Commission, see NPG Portrait Set ‘Miscellaneous drawings: The Parnell Commission, Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons by Sydney Prior Hall, circa 1886-1903’.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head-and-shoulders, profile to left, gloved right hand to monocle in right eye.

Provenanceback to top

The artist's son Dr Harry Reginald Hall, 1928, by whom presented.

Reproductionsback to top

Graphic, 23 February 1889, p.185.

View all known portraits for John Lawrence Toole