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11 Oct 2024 | |
Written by John Sadden | |
OP updates |
Three years ago, a characterful portrait of a man,captioned "Sulky" by the artist, appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. The owner explained that it had been bought by her family at a car boot sale in the 1980s for 70p because the subject reminded them of their sulky grandfather. The expert broke the news that it was not an original but a print, albeit signed by the artist. This fact, she joked, meant that the family had doubled its investment. This unremarkable encounter was reported in The Sun as "Antiques Roadshow guest horrified as portrait's hidden twist revealed by expert".
The artist's name was Gerald Tooby, who had been the subject of an enquiry to the school's archive in 2016. The enquirer was David Wilkinson, a St Ives bookseller, who had developed an interest in the artist. Mr Tooby, it was confirmed, had served as Art master at PGS from 1928 until 1935, when he left suddenly and without the usual fulsome appreciation in the Portmuthian. Mr Wilkinson explained that he had acquired a number of his drawings and paintings and researched his life, and I am indebted to him for the biographical detail of an artist who played an unlikely but significant role in the school’s history.
Gerald Tooby was born in Munich in 1893, the son of London-born landscape and animal painter, Charles Richard Tooby (1863-1918). During the First World War, the family was interned near Berlin, having been classed as “aliens”. Gerald contributed artwork to the Ruhleben prisoner of war camp magazine and towards the end of the war the family was exchanged for German prisoners of war. The "Sulky" portrait dates from this period.
Gerald studied Art at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague before settling in Chelsea. He painted portraits and displayed his work at an exhibition by former prisoners of war at Westminster Hall, where George V and Queen Mary bought some of his work. He then worked as an assistant to Jacob Epstein and Frank Brangwen and appears to have either painted or worked for Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and members of royalty. In 1925 he married Angele, a Belgian cellist.
In 1928 he began teaching at PGS. One former pupil, G. Horne (OP 1927-37), recalled in 1967 that "no one who studied under (Mr Tooby) will ever forget him, a fine artist complete with an artistic temperament. I have known him spend an art lesson playing the violin, on which he was no mean exponent, because he felt that boys should appreciate music as well as art." Mr Tooby drew a fine sketch of a pupil to demonstrate portrait drawing skills to his class, and presented the signed drawing to him - a print of it is in the school archive. He also executed a large oil painting profile of Samuel Hudson, who taught English from 1880 to 1920. This hung in the Common Room for many years and now, also, resides in the archive.
The Toobys played a full part in school life, with Angele's cello adding a touch of class to school concerts while Gerald helped out with painting backdrops and scenery for school drama productions.
In August 1934, Mr Tooby was reported in the press to be a judge for the Miss Portsmouth beauty competition. A sketch of the winner by Gerald appeared in the Portsmouth News, and he was asked if he would go to Brighton the following week to help judge the finals for Miss England. Miss Portsmouth narrowly missed out on being crowned Miss England, coming second.
How Mr Tooby's scandalous (for the time) extra-curricular activity went down with the Headmaster, Canon Barton, is not known but, not long afterwards, he was effectively sacked, ostensibly for lacking any teaching qualifications, something which had always been known by the school.
This all took place during a period of crisis and discontent following a staff pay cut and reports that pupil discipline was sliding. Mr Tooby appealed to the Governors (who wanted to dismiss the entire staff because of their "Bolshevistic" attitude) revealing that the Headmaster had lost control and no longer had the confidence of the staff. The Head was fully supported by the Governing Body but criticisms of his leadership style and dealings with parents remained and Canon Barton, feeling his authority had been eroded, resigned.
Following divorce, Mr Tooby took up a post as art tutor to Charles and Leopold, the two sons of the Belgian royal family. In 1938, he moved back to England, remarried and had a son. He lived in the Reading area, frequently exhibited locally and with the Royal Academy. He lived until his early 90s and died in 1984..