FDA-P.344-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-P.344-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
R. A. H. Mitchell
Title Type
assigned by cataloguer
Description
Three-quarter length portrait of a man, seated, with arms folded, wearing a dark suit and straw boater
Comments
'[The] portrait [of Dr Warre by Sargent] was the outcome of a subscription by more that 1500 old Etonians... So universal was the response to the request for subscriptions that a sum of fourteen hundred pounds was left over, and a cheque for this balance given to Warre. A portrait of R. A. H. Mitchell was also being preparared for presentation, and Lord Harris had written on October 5, "The picture of dear Mike will I expect hang this winter near yours, and that also I think will please you."
[Source: Edmond Warre D.D., C.B., C.V.O.: Sometime Headmaster and Provost of Eton College' by C.R.I. Fletcher, London 1922, pp.225-226]
Cricketer and Eton master Richard Arthur Henry Mitchell, better known as ‘Mike’, is here seen sitting on a bench with his arms folded, wearing a straw boater hat with a ribbon in black, red and gold, the colours of the I Zingari cricket club. A version of this portrait, of the same date, was purchased in 1907 by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is currently on display at Lords. The Eton work would appear to be the primary version, although further research is required to confirm this.
Mitchell was born at Enderly Hall, near Leicester. He was a pupil at Eton, playing cricket for the school, before studying at Oxford, where he captained the university team for three years. During the 1860s and 1870s he frequently played for the MCC and was considered one of the best batsmen in the country. He returned to Eton to work as an assistant master and a House Master. As the school’s cricket coach between 1862 and 1897, Mitchell was widely credited with raising the standard of cricket at Eton. After his retirement as principal adviser and coach of Eton cricket in 1897, the Eton Captains of 1866 to 1897 presented him with a silver bowl, paid for by subscription. Mitchell contined as an assistant master at Eton until 1899 and then served on the MCC Committee from 1902 until his death at Mayford House, Woking, in 1905.
The artist of this work, portrait and genre painter Albert Chevallier-Tayler, also has connections to cricket. Not only was he a keen cricketer himself, but he painted his first cricketing subject, the Eton v Harrow cricket match, in 1886. In 1905 he produced a series of twelve watercolours of prominent cricketers and also began his portrait of Mitchell. However, the sitter died in the same year, so the portrait had to be completed posthumously. In 1906 Tayler produced his now well-known painting of Kent v Lancashire at Canterbury.
[Source: Edmond Warre D.D., C.B., C.V.O.: Sometime Headmaster and Provost of Eton College' by C.R.I. Fletcher, London 1922, pp.225-226]
Cricketer and Eton master Richard Arthur Henry Mitchell, better known as ‘Mike’, is here seen sitting on a bench with his arms folded, wearing a straw boater hat with a ribbon in black, red and gold, the colours of the I Zingari cricket club. A version of this portrait, of the same date, was purchased in 1907 by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is currently on display at Lords. The Eton work would appear to be the primary version, although further research is required to confirm this.
Mitchell was born at Enderly Hall, near Leicester. He was a pupil at Eton, playing cricket for the school, before studying at Oxford, where he captained the university team for three years. During the 1860s and 1870s he frequently played for the MCC and was considered one of the best batsmen in the country. He returned to Eton to work as an assistant master and a House Master. As the school’s cricket coach between 1862 and 1897, Mitchell was widely credited with raising the standard of cricket at Eton. After his retirement as principal adviser and coach of Eton cricket in 1897, the Eton Captains of 1866 to 1897 presented him with a silver bowl, paid for by subscription. Mitchell contined as an assistant master at Eton until 1899 and then served on the MCC Committee from 1902 until his death at Mayford House, Woking, in 1905.
The artist of this work, portrait and genre painter Albert Chevallier-Tayler, also has connections to cricket. Not only was he a keen cricketer himself, but he painted his first cricketing subject, the Eton v Harrow cricket match, in 1886. In 1905 he produced a series of twelve watercolours of prominent cricketers and also began his portrait of Mitchell. However, the sitter died in the same year, so the portrait had to be completed posthumously. In 1906 Tayler produced his now well-known painting of Kent v Lancashire at Canterbury.
Description
Content (person)
Dimensions
height (sight size): 900mm
width (sight size): 700mm
height (frame): 1165mm
width (frame): 970mm
depth (frame): 80mm
width (sight size): 700mm
height (frame): 1165mm
width (frame): 970mm
depth (frame): 80mm
Inscription
Signed and dated lower left: 'A. C. Chevallier 1906'
Materials & techniques note
Oil on canvas
Physical description
Elaborate carved gilt frame with stylised fruit
Production
Person
Date
1906
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Commissioned by Eton College in c.1906, using remaining funds raised by old Etonians subscribers to the J.S. Sargent portrait of Dr Edmond Warre
