Ink and chalk on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/phil-may-1600" aria-label="More by Phil May" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Phil May</a>
Barney Sheppard Sings in Gloaming
Purchased 1927
paper unique ink chalk
Barney Sheppard Sings in the Gloaming
support: 168 × 264 mm
Purchased 1927
<p><b>N04266</b> BARNEY SHEPPARD SINGS IN THE GLOAMING (?) <i>c.</i>
1889–90</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘Phil May’ and ‘Barney Sheppard sings in the gloaming’ b.l.
<br/>Pen and blue chalk, 6 5/8×10 3/8 (17×26·5).
<br/>Purchased from James A. Simpson (Duveen Drawings Fund) 1927.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Thorpe, 1932, pp.31–2, 66.</p>
<p>The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> is corrected and further inscribed on the right ‘ 1/2 page’ and ‘duller tint on background leaving out figures and music and piano go right over piano’.</p>
<p>Thorpe surmises that <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/may-barney-sheppard-sings-in-the-gloaming-n04266" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04266</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/may-old-lady-and-two-men-n04268" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04268</span></a> were made, though not used, for ‘The Parson and the Painter’, which first appeared weekly in <i>The St Stephen's Review</i> in 1889 and 1890 and was published as a book in 1891. This was an account, written by Alfred Allison, of the visits to theatrical and sporting resorts in London and elsewhere of a country parson and his more sophisticated artist nephew. This drawing would appear to show the parson, the Rev. Joseph Slapkins, on the left and his nephew Charlie Summers in evening dress on the right. They also appear in an unfinished sketch on the back as spectators at a boxing match at the National Sporting Club; this is a drawing in blue <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/chalk" title="Glossary definition for 'Chalk'"><span>chalk</span></a>, only the two boxes with spectators in the upper left having been finished in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pen-and-ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Pen and Ink'"><span>pen and ink</span></a>.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
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