Cotswold House Antiques

Description

David Jagger R.O.I. (British, 1891-1958).

'Portrait of a Boy'.

Oil on panel.

51 x 41 cms (20 1/16 x 16 1/8 in).

Painted circa 1928-9.

£.POA - Negotiable.
A superb quality portrait of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy by one of the leading Society portraitists of the 20th century.

David Jagger was a versatile and prolific painter who, in the early 20th century quickly became the 'darling' of London's high society and the British aristocracy, many of whom turned to him for his deft and virtuosic skills.

Notable portraits include those of Robert Baden-Powell (1929), Queen Mary (1930 and 1932, King George V1 (1937), Winston Churchill (1939), Vivien Leigh (1941) and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1958).

Jagger became a leading exhibitor with several societies including the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) and Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP). He regularly exhibited at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA). His paintings brought him both critical and commercial success, which enabled him to set up his own professional portrait studio in Chelsea, south-west London. After the Great War finished, he met and fell in love with Catherine Gardiner, she immediately became his muse and features in many key work from the period.

Brilliantly and vigorously rendered in oils, wet into wet, and probably completed in just one sitting, this superb painting possesses a wonderful spontaneity, with a charming engagement apparent between sitter and artist.

The work is unsigned however it has previously attracted the attention of Timothy Dickson, a leading authority on the life and work of David Jagger, who wrote a footnote about the work for Bonhams London, all of which is reproduced below.

Prices for Jagger's work are now rightly in the ascendency. A consistent run of strong prices are lead by his 'Self Portrait' of 1928 which took £221,000 (Bonhams London in 2017). His portraits of children include 'Boy with his Monkey' (£21,250, Bonhams London, 2016) and 'Brian' (£18,750, Bonhams London, 2017).

His studies, or, those portraits of unnamed or unknown people, (such as the work offered here) still remain more modestly priced and represent excellent, appreciating, blue-chip opportunities for the collector.
Footnote, courtesy of Bonhams -

Throughout the 1920s and 30s Jagger was known for painting children's portraits, many of whom were fair haired boys, and he was commissioned to produced a number of large scale child portraits for wealthy and aristocratic patrons. In the present work, there are similarities to Brian (sold in these rooms for £18,750, 22 November 2017), the hair & eye colour in particular, although here, the boy's hairline is depicted in the opposite direction and is more likely an unknown sitter.

It is possible that the present work was commissioned by the advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, David Jagger's former employer during the Great War, who used it for commercial purposes in some form of advertising campaign. David Jagger's illustrative work was incorporated in several important national advertising campaigns during the late 1920s, including Players Cigarettes, Horlicks soft drinks and Clarks Threads.

Bonhams are grateful to Timothy Dickson for his assistance in cataloguing this work.