Artwork of the month: Miss Chloe Preston by J J Shannon

The speaker for our next Gallery talk will be Peter Gibbard, one of our most popular and revelatory speakers. His subject will be the portrait of the illustrator Chloe Preston, dated 1909, by James Jebusa Shannon, which has been in the permanent collection since 1949. This beautiful portrait – just reference YORAG: 23 on-line for a preview – is physically large and very heavy in its original frame. The Curatorial team is moving it from Stores to the Gallery for the duration of the talk.
Chloe was born and raised on the Moreby Hall estate, south of York. When she sat for this portrait, age 22, she was on the cusp of a publishing career that would span 30+ years for children’s books, greeting cards, decorative ceramics and retail advertising. Her art is popular with collectors today! In 1909 Shannon was at the peak of his career; that year he would be elected to the Royal Academy. He was considered second only to his fellow American, John Singer Sargent, for portraiture in both of the highly competitive British ‘aristocracy/landed gentry’ and American ‘new money industrialist’ markets. Peter’s illustrated talk includes examples of Chloe Preston’s art and Shannon’s submission for election to the Royal Academy. Both achieved artistic and commercial success in their lifetimes.

Our Artwork of the Month talks are free and booking is not required, but members are reminded to show their membership card for free admittance to the Gallery.