Max Beerbohm
Date1896
Artist
Charles Haslewood Shannon
(British painter and printmaker, 1863–1937)
MediumSingle-color lithograph
Dimensionssheet: 16 11/16 × 10 5/8 in. (42.4 × 27 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978
Object number1978-649
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextMax Beerbohm, the noted caricaturist, was introduced to Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon by William Rothenstein, the printmaker and painter. He drew several caricatures of Ricketts and Shannon. After Beerbohm’s marriage in 1910 to Florence Khan, an American actress, the couple moved to Rapallo, Italy, limiting his access to London art circles to occasional visits. This portrait depicting Beerbohm in elegant dress, including gloves and walking stick, and sophisticated pose is very similar in composition to the etched portraits of James McNeil Whistler. Like Shannon, Whistler was involved in re-introducing the print into the realm of the fine arts. Whistler, however, worked primarily in etching rather than lithography.