The Reverend Henry Montagu Villiers, MA 'St Paul's Knightsbridge'

Spy (Sir Leslie Ward) (1851-1922)

Price

£1,750

Signed

Signed

Medium

Watercolour and bodycolour with pencil

Dimensions

12 x 7 ½ inches

Illustrated

Vanity Fair, 21 August 1902, Men of the Day no 847, 'St Paul's Knightsbridge'

Literature

Chris Beetles & Alexander Beetles (eds.) Portraits of Vanity Fair: The Charles Sigety Collection, London: Chris Beetles Ltd, 2023, page 153

Exhibited

'The Illustrators. The British Art of Illustration 1871-2022', Chris Beetles Gallery, London, November-December 2022, no 34;
'Portraits of Vanity Fair: The Charles Sigety Collection', Chris Beetles Gallery, London, October-November 2023, no 74

Henry Montagu Villiers (1837-1908) held the office of Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral and later served as the Vicar of St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge.

“The Vicar of St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, is what the ladies of his fashionable congregation call a ‘dear creature’; and he really is a good fellow, who has preached many excellent sermons that are better written than they are delivered, since he left the House two-and-forty years ago. He is not very beautiful to look at, but there is no better persuader of money out of ladies' pockets to charitable ends; so that he has been called a splendid beggar. He has an excellent living, he fills a big church, he has inherited money, and, though he is a very High-Churchman, he has been seen drinking tea in an aerated bread shop.

He is a big man with two big families.”

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