Verso: Pencil on canvas: 266 Instead the child turned to the Thames, surrounded by willows at the bottom of the garden. All the while, he could sink into his other self, composing stories about five orphans who reject the “Olympians”, the aunts and uncles who suppress imaginative children. But by the time Kenneth entered the wide world, the royal blood had long diluted. It’s a boys’ club, much like Grahame’s outdoorsy chums who did not try one another with intimacy. When the First World War came, his authoritative moustache (almost as thick as Lord Kitchener’s in the finger-pointing poster saying “Your Country Needs You”) prompted his appointment as commanding officer to a non-combatant regiment. A photograph of the picture taken soon after its exhibition shows that it is signed and dated which is only just visible now; the picture was unframed by National Trust's painting conservator, Tina Sitwell, in April 2013 and its presence confirmed. It makes sense that the Trust should have this painting as the sitter; her sister, Winifred; and their brother, Courtauld, gave their home Dorneywood to the National Trust in 1943 for use by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (just as Chequers was given by Viscount Lee for use of the Prime Minister). He dropped out of Rugby School after six miserable weeks of what boys called “ragging” but was in fact bullying, then dropped out of Eton after a year. Unpicking the myths, Dennison balances regard with disturbing facts. She was a favourite of Sir John Tenniel, who wrote her annual valentines, and a friend of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 205846, Sir Francis Bernard (Frank) Dicksee, KCVO, RA (London 1853 – London 1928), Sir William Blake Richmond KCB (London 1842 – London 1921), Sir Frederic Leighton, Lord Leighton PRA (Scarborough 1830 – Kensington 1896), Elspeth 'Elsie' Thomson, Mrs Kenneth Grahame (1862-1946). Until then, Elspeth with her poodle and lady’s maid, and writing occasional verse, had filled a role as her stepfather’s hostess to eminent men like Tenniel (illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who once sent Elspeth a Valentine), Tennyson, Campbell-Bannerman and the Asquiths. At Dorneywood until at least 1959; given by Dr Dorothy Trevor Daintree (1888 - 1965), Verso: Label on back Alastair Laing: All my efforts to find out where this portrait came from - and thus, perhaps, the sitter's identity, have proved fruitless. When he was not yet five, his mother died of scarlet fever, after which he was sent to his maternal grandmother’s house at Cookham Dean near the Thames. The four children were sent south to their cold maternal grandmother at The Mount, a crumbling house in Cookham Dean in Berkshire. Grahame's father was appointed Sheriff-Substitute of Argyllshire in 1860, and the family moved to Inverary. Banking On Mr Toad will use private archives to explore Kenneth Grahame’s unconventional relationship with his wife Elspeth and his career at the Bank of England. Eventually, and with reservations, Methuen & Company accepted the book on the basis of royalties and without an advance. Kenneth Grahame Fans Also Viewed . Harold Lyon Thomson. previously catalogued as attributed to Sir Frederic Leighton, Lord Leighton PRA (Scarborough 1830 – Kensington 1896), artist, Sir Francis Bernard (Frank) Dicksee, KCVO, RA (London 1853 – London 1928) (5) Poor Elspeth, set aside in the marital home, dwindled into a wraith. There were prizes and promotion. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films. Nature touched Grahame deeply; people did not. In a book on homosexuals in the 19th century, Graham Robb includes Kenneth Grahame, though among the “pre-sexual”. The reminders are necessary because the blows, as they happen, are oddly unmoving. He now rests with his wife and son in … Dennison has chosen instead to tell a compassionate story of a boy so damaged by a loveless upbringing as to be incapable of sustained adult attachment. This portrait was once thought to be a portrait of Dorothy Trevor Daintree (1888 – 1965) who purportedly gave the picture to the Trust and, based on stylistic evidence, it was attributed to William Blake Richmond (1842 – 1921). But the Frank Dicksee expert, Simon Toll, got in touch with the Trust in 2013 and told us of the existence of the signature of this Victorian artist and its date on the picture, based on original photographic sources when the painting was exhibited at the Grosvenor Galleries in 1882. It is signed and dated 1881, the year Dicksee was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. He is best known for his role in the HBO miniseries, Rome as Pompey Magnus . 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