James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce; Sir John Charles Frederick Sigismund Day

by Sydney Prior Hall
pencil, published in The Graphic 2 March 1889
7 7/8 in. x 10 in. (201 mm x 256 mm) uneven
Given by the artist's son, Harry Reginald Holland Hall, 1928
Primary Collection
NPG 2249

Sittersback to top

James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838-1922), Jurist, historian and Liberal politician; MP for Tower Hamlets and Aberdeen South. Sitter in 15 portraits.
Sir John Charles Frederick Sigismund Day (1826-1908), Judge. Sitter in 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

Sydney Prior Hall (1842-1922), Portrait painter and illustrator. Artist associated with 152 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This is one of the many sketches of the proceedings of the Parnell Commission made by Sydney Prior Hall for the illustrated periodical The Graphic. The Parnell Commission was one of the most dramatic political and legal events of late Victorian Britain. Gladstone's advocacy of Home Rule for Ireland in 1886, and the Liberals' alliance with the nationalists under Charles Stewart Parnell, had set the Irish question at the top of the political agenda. In April 1887, The Times published a copy of a letter signed by Parnell approving the assassinations carried out in Phoenix Park in 1882. The commission set up to investigate the affair, which lasted over a year, eventually proved that the letter was a forgery. Despite the seriousness of the matter, there were evidently moments of levity. This sketch records the moment when 'Mr Bryce MP falls asleep on the Bench; Mr Justice Day lets fall all the photographs of the letters and wakes him'.

Placesback to top

Place made and portrayed: United Kingdom: England, London (Royal Courts of Justice, Westminster, London)

Portrait setback to top

The Parnell Commission, 1888-9: drawings by Sydney Prior Hall

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1889back to top

Current affairs

The London Dock strike takes place resulting in a victory for the dock workers striking over pay and conditions.
Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, allowing legal intervention between children and parents for the first time.
Charles Booth, the English social scientist, publishes the first volume of Life and Labour of the People, an extensive survey into the living conditions of London's East End working class communities.

Art and science

George Gissing's The Nether World, a dark account of the lives of the urban poor in Clerkenwell, is published. Gissing absorbs the French naturalist style of writers such as Emile Zola to produce a harshly realistic observation of life in London at the end of the nineteenth century.

International

The Eiffel Tower is erected, designed by the French engineer and bridge builder Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the Paris Exposition. At 300m high, it was the tallest manmade structure in the world at the time.
The Second International organisation is formed at a Congress in Paris by various socialist and labour parties, with the intention of working together for international socialism. It also declared 1 May International Labour Day.

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James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce; Sir John Charles Frederick Sigismund Day