Michael Dahl (1659 – 1743), after Henry Tilson (1659 – 1695)

According to George Vertue (1684 – 1756), who also worked for the earl, Dr. Busby had always refused to have his likeness taken throughout his long life so, upon his death, his close acquaintances commissioned a plaster cast from his face, from which a drawn portrait was made.[1] It was noted in the accounts of one of Dr. Busby’s trustees, John Needham, that £12 was paid to a Mr. [Henry] Tilson “for drawing the Doctor’s Picture and [a] Frame” and £5.10s to Mr. [Robert] White “for engraving the Doctor’s Picture”.[2]

Thus, all likenesses that exist of the famous schoolmaster are posthumous and derive from Henry Tilson’s drawn portrait, which itself was modelled on Busby’s death mask. This drawing, now lost, was the most immediate likeness, followed by the engraving by Robert White (1645 – 1703) [Fig. 1], which was commissioned simultaneously to Tilson’s drawing and followed its design.[3]

A pupil and household attendant of Sir Peter Lely (1618 – 1680), Henry Tilson was named after his grandfather, who had been the Bishop of Elphin.[4] After the death of his master in 1680, he briefly studied under Kneller, in whose studio he met Michael Dahl (1659 – 1743). Tilson and Dahl became close friends and travelled to the continent together in 1685, where they spent nearly five years, during which time they painted each other’s portraits.[5]

After time in Rome, Venice, and Paris, both artists returned to London, with Tilson setting up his portrait practice in Lincoln’s Inn.[6] Tragically, his drawing of the late Dr. Busby would rank as one of Tilson’s last commissions; soon after it was completed in 1695, the young artist, who suffered from depression and whose love for a patroness had been unreciprocated, “retir'd into his Closett. & with a pistol shot [himself] thro' the heart.”[7]

Until the reappearance of our portrait painting, it has always been assumed that all oil portraits of Dr. Busby must have derived from Tilson’s drawing or White’s engraving.[8] However, with our painting’s masterly quality and visible pentimenti, we can confidently propose that this oil painting is the original composition from which all other oil variants were derived [Fig. 2]. That it was painted by Tilson’s closest friend and colleague, Michael Dahl, and commissioned by the artist’s primary patron, Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (1689 – 1741), who had attended Westminster School not long after Busby’s death, also indicates that this is the primary portrait in oils.

After being hidden away for some fifty years, re-examining this painting allows us resolve previously speculative research, originally stemming from Wilhelm Nisser’s 1927 monograph about Michael Dahl, which first suggested that Dahl’s portrait of Dr. Busby probably derived from another artist’s original likeness. It is unknown when Dahl painted our portrait but it must date between 1695 and 1728; Nisser wrote, unfortunately without a reference, that Westminster School had apparently ordered a portrait from Dahl soon after Busby’s death in 1695 and the last dated commission the 2nd Earl of Oxford, who ordered our portrait, gave to Dahl was in 1728.[9]

Despite his subject having been long dead during the production of any of his portraits, Dahl managed to bring great vitality to Dr. Busby, whose name has become synonymous with Westminster School; indeed, Nisser commented that the artist’s “…great representative portraits of the high prelates…breathe a virile and austere seriousness.”[10] Although originally from Lutton in Lincolnshire, Richard Busby (1606 – 1695) attended Westminster School in London as a king’s scholar from a young age. From there he progressed to Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained his BA and MA degrees, and stayed on as a tutor in Latin and Greek until 1638, when he returned to Westminster, now as its young headmaster.[11]

Busby’s steadfast loyalty and service to the school saw it survive through some of the most tumultuous moments of the seventeenth century, including the Civil War, the Great Fire of London, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution. Despite an historic allegiance to the crown, he was compliant during the Commonwealth period, which must have ensured a more hands off involvement from the Parliamentarians, who governed the school between the reigns of Charles I and Charles II. His reputation as an objective and firm disciplinarian is still associated with his name today, however with the severity of his approach came excellent results from his charges; amongst his many illustrious pupils included the architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723), the poet John Dryden (1631 – 1700), and the philosopher John Locke (1632 – 1704).

A famous anecdote, the basis for which cannot be fully authenticated, suggests that when the new king visited the school upon the crown’s restoration in 1660 – around the time that Oxford conferred to him his Doctor of Divinity degree - Dr. Busby apparently refused to remove his hat as he did not want his pupils to see him acknowledge a higher authority than his own.[12] Indeed, the headmaster’s reputation for hard-lined discipline extended beyond the school’s walls and became legendary within his lifetime; during the Protectorate, the MP for Westmorland called the Speaker of the House of Commons a “Busby amongst so many school-boys”.[13]

He taught and disciplined his pupils “without fear or favour” in an undiscriminating but firm manner. His name still resonates with the school’s current attendees, with a house and library named after him, as well as his centuries’ long reputation for having been responsible for the early education of many of London’s greatest historical figures. Beyond the school, Dr. Busby was responsible for several charitable bequests, particularly to help poor members of the clergy, which are still facilitated by a trust today.

Our painting’s first owner, the 2nd Earl of Oxford, who possessed the largest private library in Britain, was a voracious collector of portraits, of all scales, and endeavoured to assemble likenesses of many of England’s most noteworthy men. His partiality to Dahl’s talents was noted by his friend, George Vertue, who catalogued the earl’s collection and wrote in 1737: "My good Lord Oxford, has at heart the promoteing of. . . Mr Dhal [sic] for face painting.”[14] A letter from another subject, Dr. Harbin, who wrote to Edward Harley on 10th December 1730, suggests that it was the earl who commissioned the portraits by Dahl, rather than them being pre-existing paintings. Dahl must have derived his likeness from Henry Tilson’s drawing, which, considering their close relationship, he must have accessed with some ease.

Upon the earl’s death, it was sold in his estate sale – the proceeds of which were used to pay off his considerable debts - to Thomas Barrett of Lee Priory in Kent, another active collector of portraits, which depicted famous Englishmen. It descended within his family at Lee Priory, which had been remodelled in the manner of Horace Walpole’s neo-gothic villa Strawberry Hill in the 1780s, until Colonel Thomas Brydges Barrett (1789 - 1834) who, burdened with insurmountable debt associated with the estate and a printing press set up by his eccentric father, died impoverished on the continent without an heir.

The painting was, once again, part of a revered art collection that required liquidating to pay creditors but, rather than being transferred from one affluent collector to another, it entered the art market for the first time. Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., the famous printseller with a gallery at 6 Pall Mall in London, acquired the painting at the Lee Priory auction in 1859. As well as publishing contemporary engravings by Victorian artists, Graves & Co. organised selling exhibitions of historic paintings.[15] They seem to have held onto it for nearly a decade but, in late 1867, a new tragedy, with equally devastating financial consequences, would affect the painting. A huge fire at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Pall Mall on 6th December 1867 left its neighbour, Henry Graves & Co.’s gallery, “a pitiable sight” [Fig. 4]. Though many very valuable paintings and print plates were destroyed in the fire, much were rescued and stored in the nearby United Service Club.[16] It might be that our painting was one of those rescued and subsequently earmarked for a quick sale at Christie’s as the gallery had to quickly raise funds to recover capital to reinvest in their new premises.

The next known owner was another print dealer, Herbert A.J. Breun (1867 – 1933), who offered the painting, as a work by Henry Tilson, to the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1931. This was seemingly refused on account of the gallery already owning a derivative oil portrait of Dr. Busby, so it was subsequently sold in Dr. Breun’s ‘remaining stock’ sale held at Sotheby’s upon his death a couple of years later. Latterly, the painting was offered by a ‘Mrs Murray-Hill’ at Christie’s in 1969, where it was last offered for sale.[17]

[1] A. Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, Vol. IV, London 1820, p. 420.

[2] John Needham was Busby’s solicitor as well as Receiver-General and Solicitor to Westminster Abbey. See: G.F. Russell Barker, Memoir of Richard Busby, London 1895, p. 46.

[3] A grand marble monument was also ordered for the south transept of Westminster Abbey [Fig. 3]. It was sculpted by Francis Bird (1667 – 1731), who referred to Dr. Busby’s death mask for his likeness.

[4] It was likely no accident that he was commissioned to draw Dr. Busby’s likeness considering his own hallowed ancestry.

[5] They must have influenced one another, especially in stylistic terms as Tilson’s known portraits are, technically and stylistically, somewhere between Dahl and Kneller in execution.

[6] N. Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, London 1857, Vol. III, p. 555.

[7] S. C. Morgan, Henry Tilson (1659 – 1695), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online 2010.

[8] Other versions, most of a later date, include: The National Portrait Gallery, London; Christ Church College, Oxford University; and several at Westminster School, London.

[9] The earl was most active in his commissions during the 1720s, including four portraits of himself. His sale in 1742 featured 18 paintings by Michael Dahl, including our portrait.

[10] W. Nisser, Michael Dahl and the Contemporary Swedish School of Painting, London 1927, p. 120.

[11] C.S. Knighton, Richard Busby (1606 – 1695), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Online 2004.

[12] George V liked the story so much that he allowed the incumbent headmaster the same privilege when he visited in 1919.

[14] “Vertue Note Books, Vol. III” from The Walpole Society, Vol. 22 (1934), p. 79.

[15] Their motivation in buying our painting might have been because they were familiar with Robert White’s engraved portrait of Dr. Busby.

[16] See: https://historyofparliament.com/2021/05/26/her-majestys-theatre/

[17] The catalogue entry noted that the “Dean of Lincoln” was a former owner of the painting. It has not yet been possible to identify which dean this might reference as none of the known previous owners fit that description.