Sir Gerald Kelly

The Vicar in his Study

1912

Not on display

Artist: Sir Gerald Kelly 1879–1972
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1165 x 965 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1959
Reference: T00232

Catalogue entry

T00232 THE VICAR IN HIS STUDY 1912

Inscr. on wooden backing ‘The Vicar: my father in his study. G. Kelly.’
Canvas, 46×37 1/2 (117×95).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1959.
Exh: R.A., 1913 (403); R.A. Diploma Gallery, October–December 1957 (6); R.A., 1959 (61).

The portrait, painted in 1912, represents the artist's father, the Reverend Frederick Festus Kelly (1838–1918), who was Vicar of Camberwell 1880–1915. The artist wrote (12 December 1957): ‘Fairly early in my career as a painter I kept an engagement book and my father started the idea by putting down details about the achievement of each picture, and at the end of the year he amused himself by patiently entering every sitting and of course recording exhibitions.’

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I