# Charles Haslewood Shannon

Charles Haslewood Shannon RA (26 April 1863 – 18 March 1937) was an English artist best known for his portraits. His works featured in several major European collections, including London's National Portrait Gallery. Several authorities spell his middle name Hazelwood. The National Portrait Gallery prefers the spelling used here.

## Biography

Shannon was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of Rev. Frederick William Shannon, Rector of Quarrington, and Catherine Emma Manthorp, daughter of a surgeon, Daniel Levett Manthorp. He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, where he played cricket in the first XI. He then attended the City and Guilds of London Art School (formerly known as South London School of Technical Art, previously Lambeth School of Art) and was later much influenced by his lifetime partner, Charles Ricketts and by the example of the great Venetians. His early work has a heavy, low tone, which he later abandoned for clearer, more transparent colours. He achieved success with his portraits and his Giorgionesque figure compositions, which are marked by a classic sense of style, and with his etchings and lithographs.
Dublin Municipal Gallery owns several of Shannon's work, including The Bunch of Grapes and The Lady with the Green Fan (a portrait of Mrs Hacon). Another notable subject was the popular novelist Mary Frances Dowdall. His Study in Grey is at the Munich Gallery, a Portrait of Mr Staats Forbes is located in Bremen, and Souvenir of Van Dyck is at the Melbourne Gallery. One remarkable picture is The Toilet of Venus, once part of Lord Northcliffe collection and is now held at Tate Britain. Later works by Shannon include The Amethyst Necklace (1907), The Morning Toilet (1911), The Embroidered Shawl (1914), and The Incoming Tide (1918). In 1918, he produced various portraits, including those of Princess Patricia of Connaught, Lillah McCarthy, and the actress Hilda Moore. Among his lithographs were Playmates (1908), Ebb Tide (1917), The Tidal River and A Sharp Corner (1919).
Shannon was elected as Associate of the Royal Academy in 1911 and became vice-president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1918. He was elected RA. IN 1920.
Several of his portrait works are held in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Complete sets of his lithographs and etchings were acquired by the British Museum and the Berlin and Dresden print rooms. He was awarded a first-class gold medal at Munich in 1895 and a first-class silver medal in Paris in 1900.

## Personal life

Shannon and Ricketts met as teenagers and cohabited in Chelsea for over 50 years until Ricketts died. They also worked together on many projects. Together they designed and illustrated books, set up an art journal, and created the Vale Press, which published over 75 books before it closed in 1904. Shannon became disabled in 1928 after a fall while hanging a picture. The neurological damage he suffered caused amnesia and ended his career.

## Selected works

* Princess Patricia of Connaught
* The Wise and Foolish Virgins
* The Birth of Venus
* Vanity and Sanctity
* Portrait of Miss Kathleen Bruce
* The Lady with a feather - Ca' Pesaro