Concordia Magazine 2025

The rest of the portraits of our Head Masters have now been catalogued and all have a confirmed artist attribution apart from those of Hugh Elder, Bellamy and Bishop. Either showing half-length or three-quarter length, they mostly have plain, non descript backgrounds,

with the exception of Angus Hampel’s (1984–1991) portrait of

Portrait of Spencer Leeson, 1935

Jon Gabitass (2004). In the post-19th-century portraits the Head Masters wear their academic gowns and clasp either a book or their hands. They are not at all ostentatious despite being by some leading portrait artists of their day, most notably John Singer Sargent who painted Dr William Baker (1901) and Sir Oswald Birley who painted Norman Birley (1948) and Spencer Leeson (1935). Other artists include (most recently) Beka Smith (Stephen Wright, 2013), Neale Worley (David Skipper, 1991), John Whittall (Francis Davey, 1982) and Robert Swan (Brian Rees, 1973). A more recent commission by the contemporary artist Stuart Pearson Wright of Jon Gabitass may be seen in the Reception.

Portrait of Jon Gabitass, 2004 the artist

Painted portraits of some long-standing Head Masters are missing from the School’s collection. Of the 32 heads of the School, notable missing portraits include John Goad (Head for 20 years, who founded the School’s Library in 1661 and famously saved many of the books from the Great Fire of London), OMT John Criche (29 years), James Townley (18 years), Thomas Cherry (24 years) and James Hessey (25 years). Their absence demonstrates that extended tenure as a Head did not guarantee a commissioned portrait; regular commissions became common only in the late 19th century. Merchant Taylors’ has never held any record of what its founding Head Richard Mulcaster (HM 1561–86) looked like, or of its co-founder Richard Hilles. An account written in 1650 about Mulcaster’s eminent pupil Lancelot Andrewes suggests that Andrewes once owned a portrait of Mulcaster. ‘Master Mulcaster, his other schoolmaster, who he ever reverently respected during his life in all companies, and placed him ever at the upper end of his table; and after his death, caused his picture, having but few other in his house, to be set over his study door.’ 10 Research at the archival and collection records in institutions associated with Andrewes and Mulcaster, including Pembroke College (Cambridge), Gray’s Inn and St Paul’s School, is ongoing. St Paul’s School was able to share an image of Mulcaster’s coat of arms depicted in a stained glass window at the School.

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Portrait of Dr William Baker, 1901