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New Faces: Leaving Portraits

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Home What’s on Online Exhibitions New Faces: Leaving Portraits

There are approximately 275 Leaving Portraits in the Eton collection, including examples in chalk and watercolour, modern and contemporary works and recent commissions.

The tradition developed from an earlier practice of boys presenting the Head Master with gifts of Leaving Money as they left the college. Edward Barnard (Head Master 1754–65) was the first to request portraits instead of money from boys he personally selected. For the next 100 years, successive Head Masters invited on average a few boys each year to present their portraits. The works were the property of the individuals who requested them. However, ultimately most were given or bequeathed to the college.

After a gap of some 60 years, an attempt was made to revive the tradition by Provost M. R. James during the 1920s. Few examples were painted from 1930, until Lord Charteris of Amisfield (Provost 1978–91) again gave new life to the practice in the 1980s. The 20th- and 21st-century Leaving Portraits have generally been commissioned by, or in collaboration with, the college.

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Cyril Mowbray Wells (1871–1963), English cricketer and schoolmaster 1920

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Cyril Mowbray Wells (1871–1963), English cricketer and schoolmaster 1920

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This is the last of a series of four portraits by William Strang recording long-serving members of staff at the college. Cyril Mowbray Wells arrived at Eton as a master in 1894 and later took charge of cricket. This portrait was commissioned by Old Etonians who had played in the cricket Eleven between 1894 and 1919. It was presented to Wells on his retirement, along with three silver fruit dishes and a book of the signatures of subscribers. Wells immediately presented the portrait to the college. Sadly 48 members of the Eleven within those dates were killed in the First World War.

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