Ernest Thesiger

This is something very special, although perhaps more for vintage cinema buffs. The sitter is Ernest Thesiger CBE (1879-1961), not perhaps the most famous actor of his generation but a strong candidate for the most interesting. I’m not going to cut and paste Wikipedia here but I urge you to look him up when you have a moment. Suffice to say he led a full and interesting life on the London stage and in 1930s Hollywood, befriended the great and the good of the day and founded The Disabled Soldiers' Embroidery Industry. The latter actually proving more use than the name would suggest. He was often in drag for his London roles and Shaw wrote the part of the Dauphin in Saint Joan for him. Moody was less bohemian, a Malvern based artist he presumably became friendly with Thesiger through his association with the Malvern Literary Festival. In 1939 He was commissioned to paint a group of festival luminaries that included Shaw, Priestley and Thesiger and the result was exhibited that year at his solo show with the Goupil Gallery. In the commissioned group Thesiger appears to be wearing the same Zipper top as in our portrait, suggesting it might have been painted at the same time. It is in a wonderfully hand decorated frame by the artist.