Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

4 Likes voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

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

Buy a print Buy a greetings card Make a donation Close

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan

by Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt
oil on canvas, 1888
45 1/2 in. x 34 1/4 in. (1156 mm x 870 mm)
Bequeathed by Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, 1902
Primary Collection
NPG 1325

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt (1829-1896), Painter and President of the Royal Academy; ex-officio Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Artist or producer associated with 43 portraits, Sitter in 76 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Smartify image discovery app
  • Funnell, Peter (introduction); Marsh, Jan, A Guide to Victorian and Edwardian Portraits, 2011, p. 31 Read entry

    Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) achieved early success as a composer of serious music. In 1866 he wrote Cox and Box, a comic operetta, and in 1872 first collaborated with W. S. Gilbert on Thespis. With Gilbert as librettist, Sullivan composed a series of triumphantly successful comic operettas, performed after 1881 at the Savoy Theatre in London, which was built for them by Richard D’Oyly Carte. Sullivan also composed numerous songs, including ‘The Lost Chord’ (1877), orchestral and sacred pieces, and one grand opera, Ivanhoe (1891).

  • Ribeiro, Aileen, The Gallery of Fashion, 2000, p. 190
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 598

Events of 1888back to top

Current affairs

Charles Ritchie, President of the Local Government Board, is responsible for the Local Government Act, a landmark piece of reform that establishes 62 elected county councils and over sixty county boroughs, with responsibility for roads, bridges, drains and general county business.
Five prostitutes are murdered, and their bodies mutilated, in Whitechapel, East London, by an unidentified killer who became known as 'Jack the Ripper'. The murderer was never discovered.

Art and science

Heinrich Hertz performs experiments validating James Clark Maxwell's model of electromagnetic radiation, a form of wireless energy transfer. His apparatus for generating electromagnetic waves is recognised as the first radio transmitter.
The term 'arts and crafts' is coined by the bookbinder T J Cobden-Sanderson with the establishment of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.

International

Accession of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the German throne. Wilhelm, the son of Kaiser Frederick III and Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, was the last Kaiser of Germany.
George Eastman invents the Kodak box camera, the first commercially successful box camera for roll film, with the slogan 'you press the button - we do the rest'.

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.