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Lot Essay
Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) was an English composer and conductor. He served as the BBC’s Director of Music from 1942-44, and during the Second World War he also served on the music committee of the British Council, together with Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Walton. After the War he resumed his work as a composer, and was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music. In 1961, Bliss and Christopher Hassall collaborated on a cantata, The Beatitudes, which was commissioned for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral.
There is another drawing of Sir Arthur Bliss by Wyndham Lewis in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, also executed in 1922. Lewis also designed the cover illustration for Bliss's A Colour Symphony in 1924 (P. Edwards, Wyndham Lewis: Painter and Writer, London, 2000, p. 368, no. 190, illustrated), and Bliss chose the current portrait for the cover of his 1928 book, Nine Songs for Voice.
We are very grateful to Paul Edwards for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
There is another drawing of Sir Arthur Bliss by Wyndham Lewis in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, also executed in 1922. Lewis also designed the cover illustration for Bliss's A Colour Symphony in 1924 (P. Edwards, Wyndham Lewis: Painter and Writer, London, 2000, p. 368, no. 190, illustrated), and Bliss chose the current portrait for the cover of his 1928 book, Nine Songs for Voice.
We are very grateful to Paul Edwards for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.