Eric Kennington was an English artist, sculptor and illustrator, and an official War Artist in both World Wars.  This oil on canvas portrait of the actor Sir John Gielgud was painted in 1936 when Gielgud was beginning to make a name for himself within the world of theatre.  At this point in time Kennington was already a well known painter, a very accomplished portrait painter who painted a great many portraits during WW1, being under instruction from the War Artists Commission.

Gielgud needs little introduction, he was one of the greatest English actors of all time and had a long and successful career in theatre and film.  This is a very rare portrait which was discovered only recently and found within the area of the South of England where Gielgud was born, acted and spent a great deal of his life in the English countryside.