Celebrating Queer Creativity: Walker, Shannon and Philpot
/ New English Art Club
Pride Month, which takes place in June, celebrates the contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community to the wider world.
To commemorate Pride 2025 we have delved into the archives of the Federation of British Artists, to explore some trailblazers from previous NEAC exhibitions. Throughout the month we will be sharing stories from talented artists who have had a relationship with the New English Art Club.
While we are celebrating their artistic skill and contribution to the history of art, we are also highlighting these artists for their powerful resonance with today's LGBTQIA+ communities.
Enjoy the first article of our series, featuring Dame Ethel Walker, Charles Haslewood Shannon and Glyn Philpot.
Dame Ethel Walker NEAC (1861-1951)
Dame Ethel Walker NEAC was a Scottish painter of portraits, flowers, seascapes and mythical subjects. She was also the first female member of the New English Art Club, elected in 1900. Between 1898 and 1951, Walker showed over two hundred and fifty works with the Club.
Image (1): © National Portrait Gallery, London
She is perhaps best known for her portraits of the female form, paying particular attention to the detail of the sitter or model's expression and individual temperament. Her obvious, tactical brush strokes obscure unnecessary details, thereby allowing her to emphasise the aspects of the mood of the moment (2).
Walker is now acknowledged as a lesbian artist – a fact that critics have noted is boldly apparent in her preference for women sitters and female nudes. It has been suggested that Walker was one of the earliest lesbian artists to explore her sexuality openly in her works (3).
Walker exhibited 'Decoration: The Excursion of Nausicaa' at the NEAC in 1920. Inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, the painting shows the princess Nausicaa bathing with her maidens. Walker lived, worked and studied with fellow painter Clara Christian, whom she met in 1880. In 1904 Christian exhibited 'July Morning' at the NEAC alongside Walker’s 'A Summer’s Morning'.
An incredibly bold and groundbreaking artist, Walker's ambitious and creative pieces still inspire and empower artists today. She is remembered not just for her artistic achievement, but also her unrelenting strength and self-advocacy in redefining the gender narrative.
Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937)
Charles Haslewood Shannon was an English artist best known for his portraits. In total he showed twelve works with the NEAC between 1888 and 1903. Shannon's partner was fellow artist Charles Ricketts, whom he painted in the portrait below, which was exhibited at the NEAC in 1898.
Image (4): © National Portrait Gallery, London
Titled ‘The Man in an Inverness Coat – Portrait of Charles Ricketts’, the painting (below) is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (5). There also exists a companion painting, a self-portrait of Shannon (above). Ricketts’s executor Thomas Lowinsky wrote about these portraits, ‘I am not sure whether they are the best portraits that Shannon ever painted – anyway they are by far the best self-portraits – if you can call the one of Ricketts a self portrait; - since they were so much identified with each other, you nearly can’ (6).
They are by far the best self-portraits – if you can call the one of Ricketts a self portrait; - since they were so much identified with each other, you nearly can.
Both Shannon and Ricketts were key figures in the London art world from the late 1890s, founding Vale Press and establishing an art journal alongside their painting. Ricketts also worked on set design for George Bernard Shaw, including a premier of Shaw's Saint Joan in 1925. They are today celebrated as LGBTQIA+ pioneers, leaving a vast impact across the visual arts, theatre and literary worlds. Despite being unable to publicly identify themselves as a homosexual couple, they were completely committed to each other, with Ricketts even giving up his own painting career so they could afford to support Shannon's artistic aspirations (7).
Glyn Philpot (1884-1937)
In 1923 painter and sculptor Glyn Philpot took over the studio flat of Shannon and Ricketts. Philpot exhibited five works with the NEAC between 1906 and 1909, some years before he became an Associate member of the Royal Academy in 1915.
Image (8): © National Portrait Gallery, London
Whilst Philpot primarily worked in portraiture, with most of his income coming from commissions, he often diversified his range, painting artworks considered mythological and mystical.
A deeply spiritual man, Philpot converted to Roman Catholicism in 1905. He produced many religious paintings, one of which, ‘Christ in the Tomb With Angels’ was exhibited at the NEAC in 1907. Pictured here is a later work, ‘Resurgam’ (1929), showing a similar subject (9).
The 2022 exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, ‘Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit’ considered the artist’s homoerotic work in light of recent queer theory, whilst celebrating his socially progressive subject matter and modern artistic direction. The show brought his name and work, painted around 100 years prior, to a contemporary audience in awe of his range of talent and bravery in shaking off convention.
New English Art Club
The New English Art Club hosted its first exhibition in 1886, inspired by the fresh vision offered by French Impressionism. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists.
References
Banner image: Acrobats Waiting to Rehearse by Glyn Philpot (detail), oil on canvas, 1935, © Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove.
(1) Dame Ethel Walker by Dame Ethel Walker, oil on canvas, circa 1925, NPG 5301, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
(2) Youmans, Joyce M. (12 December 2002) [2002]. "Walker, Ethel (1861-1951)". In Summers, Claude J. (ed.). glbtq: An encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture. Chicago: glbtq, Inc.
(3) Hyde, Sarah (1997). Exhibiting Gender. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 49.
(4) Charles Haslewood Shannon by Charles Haslewood Shannon, oil on canvas, 1897, NPG 3107, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
(5) Charles de Sousy Ricketts by Charles Haslewood Shannon, oil on canvas, 1898, NPG 3106, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
(6) Letter from T. Lowinsky to H.M. Hake, 7 Feb. 1942, NPG RP 3106, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
(7) Petheram, Jessie (2021). Shannon and Ricketts - A Creative Partnership. Liverpool Museums.
(8) Glyn Warren Philpot by Glyn Warren Philpot, oil on canvas, 1908, NPG 4681, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
(9) Resurgam by Glyn Warren Philpot, oil on canvas, circa 1929, Private Collection. Photo: © Christie’s.