A Man Who Liked to Strike a Pose

Yesterday I was in London (my dear, the noise – and the people!) to have a leisurely lunch with an old friend. Afterwards, with time to kill before my homeward train left, I thought I'd pop in to the National Gallery to have a quick look around. Oh dear. The days of popping in – the days when Ronald Firbank's Mrs Shamefoot could drop in to tidy her hair in front of the Madonna of the Rocks – are long gone. Now airport-style security means long, slow-moving queues stretching into the middle distance, and zero chance of a flying visit. No wonder the gallery's visitor numbers are down by nearly half. Happily the National Portrait Gallery, around the corner, is far more penetrable, so I popped in there for a quick mooch. That was when I saw the self-portrait above, which made me audibly laugh. It's by a St Ives painter, Arthur Hayward (1889-1962), who clearly liked a joke. Here he portrays himself grandly as The Artist, striking a pose every bit as flamboyant and histrionic as any struck by Rubens or Rembrandt or Van Dyck. In the background is the harbour of St Ives, a subject Hayward painted many times, usually in an easy-on-the-eye Impressionist style – or is it actually a painting of the harbour? The same background appears again in the self-portrait below, in which Hayward, for some reason, paints himself in the guise of a Breton onion-seller (an 'Onion Johnny', as they were known). He has the beret, but not the traditional striped jersey, and he appears to be wearing a college scarf. The onions look good enough to eat.

Hayward also painted himself as a (presumably French) skier, in a self-portrait called Le Skieur. He was certainly a man who liked to strike a pose...