Portrait of Cyril Flower by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904)

Dennis T. Lanigan

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Portrait of Cyril Flower, Lord Battersea. 1872. Black, white, red, green, brown and blue coloured chalks on buff-coloured paper. 24 ¾ x 20 inches (63 x 512 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Sotheby's.

This is the first of Sandys's two portrait drawings of Cyril Flower (1843-1907). The second of these, showing Flower in profile to the left, is dated 1877 with alterations in 1880. This later portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, no. 1187. The earlier version from 1872 is a frontal view which has been described by Betty Elzea as: "Bust-length of a bearded, wavy-haired young man. The head of a collie dog is in the lower left (as if sitting on his lap). The shoulders are facing forward, but are turned very slightly to the left; the head is a full-face but turned slightly to the right. He appears to be wearing a dark velvet jacket with satin-bound lapels and a frogged front. He wears a dark silk stock with a pearl pin formed as a horseshoe. There are flowers and foliage in the background: grapevine, honeysuckle, laurel and clover" (245-46). Elzea feels it was probably commissioned as a pair with the portrait of his sister, Clara Flower (Elzea, cat. 3.35).

Cyril Flower was considered "the most handsome man in London" (Rose 122). During the 1870s and 1880s he was Sandys's most loyal patron, either commissioning or buying many of his works. Their relationship eventually soured, however, when the financial advances made by Flower to Sandys were not repaid (Rose 122). Flower had provided Sandys with a weekly allowance on condition that all the work he produced would be sold with the proceeds going towards repaying his debts (Sotheby's 104).

Flower was son of Philip William Flower, a wealthy merchant and land developer. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and called to the bar in the Inner Temple in 1870. In 1877 he married Constance Rothchild, the elder daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothchild. He served as Liberal M.P. for Brecknock from 1880-85 and for Luton, Bedfordshire from 1885-92. In 1892 he was elevated to the peerage by William Gladstone and created Baron Battersea of Battersea, London and Overstrand, Norfolk. He was a prominent art collector whose collection included works by progressive artists other than Sandys like D.G. Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and James McNeill Whistler.