George Bernard Shaw
Doreen Spooner
Category
Photographs
Date
1948
Materials
Wood, paper, glass
Measurements
6.25 ins (h)4.25 ins (w)7.25 ins (h)9.5 ins (w)2.5 ins (d)
Place of origin
Shaw's Corner
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274658
Summary
A photograph taken by the press photographer Doreen Spooner of George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) standing at the gate at Shaw’s Corner in 1948. Shaw is wearing his characteristic tweed "knicker" suit, with a panama hat and walking stick. The photograph is displayed in an oak stand. Spooner won the British News Picture of The Year Award with this portrait of Shaw, and was the first woman to work as a staff photographer on a Fleet Street newspaper (The Daily Mirror). The photograph, published in Illustrated magazine in November 1948, accompanied the article by Charles Hamblett, ‘Teatime Talk with G.B.S.’
Provenance
Presented as a gift to Robert Studman by George Bernard Shaw on 6th October 1949. It is not known when the photograph was returned to Shaw's Corner. The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Marks and inscriptions
In George Bernard Shaw's handwriting on reverse of photograph: "To Robert Studman/ old friend and factotum/ at Whitehall Court/ G. Bernard Shaw/ Ayot St. Lawrence/ 6th. October/ 1949." Also NT stamp and 18765.
Makers and roles
Doreen Spooner, photographer