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David Jagger
(1891 - 1958)
The Silk Scarf, 1925
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David Jagger (1891 - 1958)
Size:
Height – 89cm
Width – 69.5cm
The painting was first exhibited at Burlington House in London with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, where it was described as ‘a bold piece of work that won approval’ (Sheffield Telegraph). When exhibited the following year at the 46th Annual Exhibition of the Sheffield Society of Artists it was singled out for praise by the art critic of the Sheffield Independent, who vividly described ‘A black-haired woman with a powdered face and clear-cut features, stands with one hand on her hip and looks half-contemptuously at us. It is a striking piece of work’ (Sheffield Independent, 4th September 1926).
The sitter has been identified as Chelsea model film and stage actress Miss Irene Dineley, whose portrait was also painted by artists including William Bruce, Ellis Ranken, and Ambrose McEvoy. Her image also appeared on various magazine covers and adverts of the period.
David Jagger was born in Kilnhurst, near Rotherham, in 1891. He was the son of colliery manager Enoch Jagger and his wife Mary Sargeant, and had a sister Edith (approx. 1880’1938) and brother Charles (1885’1934). Edith became a landscape artist, and founded Painted Fabrics Ltd in 1923; Charles became a sculptor.
Jagger went to the Sheffield School of Art, together with his sister and his brother. After his education, he became a leading member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (R.O.I.), and exhibited regularly at The Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists (R.B.A.) and the R.O.I. In 1940, Jagger exhibited together with his sisten and brother (posthumously) in a special exhibition at the Rotherham Art Gallery and Museum, under the title The art of the Jagger Family.
Jagger’s most notable work is the painting of Robert Baden-Powell, as presented to Baden-Powell during the Coming of Age Jamboree on 10 August 1929. Numerous copies of this portrait have been created, and are displayed on Scouting premises worldwide. The original is on display in the collection of Baden-Powell House, the former headquarters of The Scout Association. A significant copy is in the office of the Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in Geneva.
Jagger produced portraits of illustrious people, such Queen Mary, exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1930, Winston Churchill, the artist Robert Fowler, physician Dr Thomas Forrest Cotton (1926), and business man J.G. Graves, Mrs Thelma Bader, wife of Wing Commander Douglas Bader (1942), Lady Lady Millicent Taylour, and his brother Charles Sargeant Jagger (in the National Portrait Gallery since 1998).
Jagger was a prolific painter, and also painted more anonymous persons, such as Portrait Of An Officer Of The Raf During World War II (1941), Portrait of an architect holding plans (unk date), Portrait of a woman (1945), The silk scarf, Negro profile, and Olga. But he also painted landscapes and stills such as Corfe Castle (date unk), Mountain road, Majorca (date unk), Meissen porcelain parrot (unk date), and Mother & Child by Stream (1912).
