William Woodall

Inscriptionback to top

Inscr. in pencil top right: ‘W. Woodall / M .P’;
and signed bottom left: ‘Spy’.

This portraitback to top

This drawing was published as a chromolithograph in Vanity Fair on 15 October 1896 with the caption ‘Hanley’, referring to the Stoke-on-Trent constituency for which Woodall was the first parliamentary representative between 1885 and 1900. It was purchased from Hodgson & Co., 115 Chancery Lane, London in November 1938, along with fifty-two other portraits (NPG 2964–3012). [1]

Thomas Gibson Bowles, writing as ‘Jehu Junior’, provides a useful description of Woodall’s amenable character in the accompanying Vanity Fair text:

He has a way of making friends that would do credit to the best of Tories; and a knack of earning the esteem of his strongest political opponents. He is the master of detail, full of business aptitude, and of a healthy spirit of co-operation which has oiled many wheels. Socially he has been as well known as he is politically; and his ‘Sandwich’ parties in Queen Anne’s Mansions have attracted people of all conditions, from the biggest Statesmen to the poorest journalists. He is a man of much feeling, of considerable culture, and of great courtesy even to his enemies; and he has a very cheerful, sunny way with him that puts even the shyest stranger at ease. [2]
Leslie Ward’s depiction of Woodall compliments this assessment. The sitter wears a benevolent and considerate expression. His broad-shouldered pose and stance, with legs slightly parted, communicates the confidence of a man at ease with himself and his achievements. In contrast to the more obvious social satire practised by contemporaries such as Carlo Pellegrini (‘Ape’), Ward’s portrayal of Woodall is as a dignified and respectable statesman, and the image is emblematic of the artist’s particular strain of gentle caricature. Although he drew for Vanity Fair from 1873, he never strayed beyond poking cautious fun at personal foibles and eccentricities. As attested by NPG 2987, the artist’s later illustrations for the magazine tended ‘more and more towards conventional portraiture’. [3]

See NPG collection 2566–2606, 2698–2746, 2964–3012, 3265–3300, 4605–4611, 4627–4636, 4707(1–30), 4711–4758

Elizabeth Heath

Footnotesback to top

1) Hodgson & Co., 2 Nov. 1938 (529, 15 drawings; 530, 15 drawings; and 532, 20 drawings). For a copy of the sale catalogue, see NPG RP 2964–3012. Although the catalogue lists 50 portraits, it appears that 52 were actually acquired from this source. The NPG Report of the Trustees 1938–9 individually lists 49 Vanity Fair portraits accessioned into the Primary Collection during this period. The last three from this batch were transferred from the Reference to the Primary Collection in 1968 (forming part of NPG 4707(1–30)).
2) ‘Statesmen. no.DCLXXIX. Mr William Woodall, M. P.’, Vanity Fair, 15 Oct. 1884, p.273.
3) Harris & Ormond 1976, p.11.

Physical descriptionback to top

Whole-length to right, standing, almost profile to right, hands held at waist.

Provenanceback to top

Hodgson & Co., 2 November 1938, part of lots 529, 530, 532, purchased by the Gallery.

Reproductionsback to top

Copies of the print after NPG 2987
Chromolithograph by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, Vanity Fair, 15 October 1896; copy coll. NPG D44825.

View all known portraits for Sir Leslie Ward

View all known portraits for William Woodall