However, it may very well be a painting by Clifford Hall.
I first became aware of the existence of this painting some years ago while doing a Google images search for paintings by Clifford Hall, and was surprised to find the above image being described thus:
Lot 965
Clifford Hall, self portrait “Seated Artist 1932″ 28″ x 29” £150-200
OK, so it’s of a man with a beard. And yes, Clifford Hall had a beard. He also had a lot more hair on the top of his head, especially when he was 28 years old, which was how old he would have been in 1932.
This is his self portrait, painted ten years later in 1942:
But I guess whoever it was who identified it as a self portrait had very little idea of what he really looked like. Indeed, perhaps they just knew he was a man with a beard. And as people so often do when they don’t actually know the truth, they just start making things up.
The “Seated Artist 1932” does not appear to be signed, at least not recto. How it came to be identified as a work by Clifford Hall I do not know. It might possibly be due to some information that is to be found on the back of the painting (verso). Unfortunately, there appears to be no information regarding this on the auctioneer’s website. Perhaps there was some more information at the time it was auctioned. But if there was, this has not been archived.
Anyway, while I knew straightaway that this painting was not of Clifford Hall, I have always thought it could still be by him. And now, finally, I am almost certain it must be by him, because I have finally worked out who it is a portrait of. And so I must confess I am a little annoyed with myself for not realising the truth of the matter before, for I must admit that my own desire for it to be of someone “notable” has probably delayed me in my efforts to correctly identify the sitter, because for some considerable time I toyed with the rather fanciful notion that it might be of Sir George Clausen, who was one of Clifford Hall’s teachers at the Royal Academy and subsequently wrote the foreword for the catalogue of Hall’s second exhibition at the Leger Gallery.
Here is one of Clausen’s self portraits:
Well, at least the hairline and the colour of the beard are more like those of the “Seated Artist” – but really, it is not the same face. And also, by 1932, Clausen was 80 years old – the “Seated Artist” is a middle-aged man, not an elderly one.
It was when I was thumbing through my father’s book on how to paint portraits, just a few days ago, that I realised that this drawing, which is illustrated in there, is of the same man (in profile) as the mystery man in the painting:
It is clearly the same man. And depicted, moreover, at around about the same time. So a portrait of S.A. Knight Esq. it is then. Painted by Clifford Hall.
So who was this gentleman, S. A.Knight Esq.? What did he do?
Well, if he is the same Knight to whom a few references can be found in Clifford Hall’s journal and correspondence with the artist’s first wife, Marion, Knight’s first name was Sydney*; and he was the author of at least one published novel – as well as being a painter of sorts
*A Sydney Knight visited the artist in his studio on 22 April 1966; they had a long chat and a cup of tea.
On January 22, 1967 Hall wrote in his journal:
Spent the afternoon, until 6.30, with Knight. It was quite an easy journey to East Twickenham on a 27 bus. The river looked very lovely, one could paint there.
I had to look at a lot of Knight’s work which meant very little to me. He has absolutely no sense of form. On the way home I wondered why, in fifteen years, with all the opportunities to study he could wish for, complete freedom from the necessity of earning his living and constant good health he has not succeeded in learning to draw even passably well. The answer must me simple. Perhaps he has not tried to learn because he was not convinced of the absolute necessity of so doing. And yet he is an intelligent man, his one published novel was, if nothing else, truly sensitive in its observation of landscape and what is called nature although the human beings were unreal.
In a letter to his wife, written during the war, Hall expressed a rather similar level of disdain regarding an acquaintance called “Knight ” that he “doesn’t have time to see”. So perhaps we may conclude that these are probably all references to this one man the artist knew who was called S.A. Knight Esq, and who sat for the artist in 1932. The journal entry above certainly could not be about Dame Laura Knight’s husband, Harold Knight RA, who died in 1961 and was, quite unequivocally, a very fine draughtsman.
Searching online I have been unable to find any trace of a painter called S. A. Knight, or Sydney Knight. There do appear to be several authors called Sydney Knight, but I haven’t found one of that name who had a novel published in the 1960s or before.
Alas, S. A. Knight and his novel, as well as his pictures, appear to have sunk into total obscurity. Oblivion even. And therefore Clifford Hall’s “Seated Artist 1932” cannot be said to be of someone “notable”.
The auction at Denhams took place in 2004; the “Seated Artist” turned up at auction again in 2008. I found this link on liveauctioneers.com
An oil on canvas by Clifford Hall self portrait
Judging by the little photo displayed there, the painting had been cleaned and possibly re-varnished since it was auctioned in 2004. But it also looks like some careless idiot managed to make a hole in the canvas on the left-hand side – easily done if you don’t take care. Has that damage been repaired since?
I can only hope.
And if you are the current owner of this painting, I can also only hope that you, or someone you know, comes across this blog post, and that if and when the “Seated Artist” comes up for sale again, the subject will be correctly identified this time.