N I C H O L S O N ’ S P O RT R A I T OF A C BENSON AN UNUSUAL PIECE OF COLLEGE ART HISTORY
(Photo: Matt Moon)
Benson Hall now has, most appropriately, a newly-acquired and quite well-known portrait of A C Benson as Master (1915-25), occupying the central place of honour above the fireplace. It is by Sir William Nicholson, and has a curious history. It was eight years in gestation: starting in 1916, sittings had to be suspended for the five years of Benson’s depressive illness, and was only resumed in 1923. Benson disliked the finished portrait, did not want to hold onto it himself, and in effect confined it to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Its return to Magdalene was successfully negotiated in 2018. The story of its protracted genesis, and the friendship between artist and sitter, can be pieced together from the unpublished entries in the Benson Diary. To this we can add some account of its return and assess its importance. In November 1916 Benson began sitting for a new portrait by Sir William Nicholson. On being told about this, Benson’s extraordinary benefactress, Mme Eugenia de Nottbeck, an American heiress who lived in Switzerland, immediately gave £700 (about £42,500 in today’s values) to pay for it. The Master and Fellows had already commissioned a portrait five years earlier, by R E Fuller 63
