Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

By other artists
Photograph

By other artistsback to top

1895
Oil on canvas by Philip Wilson Steer, half-length, head to right; coll. Thomas family, 1971. Exh. NEAC, London, 1895; J.H. Thomas memorial, Leicester G., London, 1922; P.W. Steer, Tate, 1929; and Beaux Arts G., London, 1936 (53); repr. Laughton 1971, p.136. [1]

publ.1902
Pen and ink caricature drawing by (John) Bernard Partridge, A Council at the Royal Academy, half-length, facing front, in back row second from left, wearing toga; untraced. Repr. Punch, 21 May 1902, p.363; and Trippi 2002, p.167, fig.136.
See also Alma-Tadema, Brock, Crane, East, Frampton, Goodall, Herkomer, Orchardson, Poynter, Richmond, Stone, Thornycroft, J.W. Waterhouse, Watts, Wells, Whistler.

1910
Pencil drawing by James Kerr-Lawson, inscr. and dated ‘Taormina. 26 March 1910’, seated, asleep, umbrella between knees; Tate, N04187.

c.1910
Crayon and/or pencil drawing by James Kerr-Lawson; see NPG 2115.
This is the prime portrait for J.H. Thomas.

exh. 1914
?Painting by Herbert H. Gilchrist; untraced. Exh. RSPP 1914 (129).

1920
Sanguine and black chalk drawing by William Rothenstein, head, full-face; Tate, N04009. Ref. Rothenstein 1926, no.519.

Photographback to top

?1880s
Photograph by unidentified photographer, whole-length, standing on right, in top hat, with four other figures incl. George Clausen seated centre; J.H. Thomas Archive, Tate Archives, TGA 924. A xerox of this very damaged photograph in NPG SB (J.H. Thomas).[2]
This is the earliest known image of J.H. Thomas and the only one to show him clean-shaven.


Footnotes
1) The portrait was offered to the NPG for purchase (£400) by the Beaux Arts G., and declined (offer no.130/1936). In 1958 the Thomas family suggested the portrait would be offered as a bequest but this was never formalized or pursued; see NPG NoS (J.H. Thomas).
2) In 1886 Thomas’s studio in Manresa Rd, Chelsea, was the meeting place for artists such as George Clausen, Walter Crane and W. Holman Hunt rebelling against the RA exhibition procedures. For the ‘Chelsea Conspirators’, see Crane 1907, pp.287–95.

Carol Blackett-Ord