St Cross College, Oxford

The portrait of Dick Repp by Juliet Wood has been much admired, and the purpose of this brief note is to record how it was commissioned.

Dr R.C. Repp, by Juliet WoodThree Masters of St Cross, three portraits; and we have reason to be pleased with them all. The painting of Kits van Heyningen by Sir William Coldstream was completed in 1972, in the early days of the College, and was commissioned and paid for by the Mildred Treverton Trust, source of so many of the College's fine art objects, purchased mainly on advice from Charles Handley-Read. It hung initially in the Van Heyningens' own house, and was given to St Cross once the College could provide a suitable place for its display. Governing Body's only role on this occasion was to accept the gift. In the case of the other two portraits, Juliet Wood's recent one and that of Godfrey Stafford by Aubrey Davidson-Houston (1985), the actual decision to have a portrait painted was taken by Governing Body, which then remitted to its Arts Committee the task of recommending an artist; it subsequently accepted the Committee's choice and formally commissioned the work. The cost was met each time by members of the College, in response to an appeal organised by the Vice-Master of the time. It is perhaps worth noting that two members of the current Arts Committee, Tom Tinsley and Derek Roe, were also involved on the occasion of the Godfrey Stafford portrait, which may reflect either their academic longevity, or merely inertia within the College in changing the Arts Committee's membership.

For the Stafford portrait, the members of the Arts Committee sought opinions in and around Oxford about possible painters, and looked at recent paintings of local Heads of Houses, and other distinguished persons, before deciding on two artists to visit in their studios. Prices for portraits vary greatly, and total cost was an important factor in reaching a final choice. The difference in the more recent exercise, carried out in the spring and summer of 1999, was that much more literature about portrait painters, illustrating examples of their work, is now readily available, from such bodies as the Federation of British Artists. Another helpful starting point was an article on How to Commission a Portrait, published ten years earlier in a rather unlikely place, vol 299 of the British Medical Journal, to which John Tiffany kindly drew our attention. Various annual exhibitions of recent portraits also now take place, for example that of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Illustrated catalogues are produced for these and there is also a continuous exhibition of recent portraits at the New Grafton Gallery in Barnes, London. The Arts Committee consulted these sources and also took cost into account, before writing to several painters to invite submission of photographs of their recent work for it to consider. Some proved to have long waiting lists, but eventually four names were selected as a short-list. From these, Juliet Wood emerged as the Committee's clear favourite, though there was a strong second choice.

In due course, a selection of the photographs of these painters' work was presented at a Governing Body meeting in Michaelmas Term 1999 by the Arts Committee's chairman, with other members present, and Governing Body rapidly proved to be strongly in favour of Juliet Wood: indeed, the immediate appeal of her work, the way in which she uses colour, and the sense that one was looking at paintings of real people in characteristic natural poses, even if one did not happen to know them, all created a surge of genuine enthusiasm (if that is not too strong language to apply to a St Cross Governing Body decision). We had shown work from the short-list to the Master himself, and he too had liked Juliet Wood's paintings best. By a pleasing coincidence, she had been a pupil of Sir William Coldstream, painter of the Van Heynigen portrait.

After the basic details of the commission had been formally arranged, we decided to leave everything else, including choice of background, to the artist and sitter, and a slightly bemused Dick awaited his first meeting with Juliet Wood and ten sittings (subsequently increased to twelve). He claims to have enjoyed the whole experience, and was certainly happy with the final result, which was first displayed, unframed on an easel in Hall, at the post-Encaenia drinks party in June 2000. For framing, we followed Juliet Wood's advice, and in due course a relatively informal title label will be attached, comparable in style to the one recently added to the Stafford portrait. Only the task of hanging the new painting remained: no small matter in any Oxford College, especially since it became clear after various trials that it would involve moving the other two portraits from their familiar positions. However, the Arts Committee's chairman encountered nothing but goodwill in negotiating the eventual result, and no complaints have since been received. An excellent test of success in hanging any painting is that it should immediately look as if it has always been there: perhaps our three portraits do indeed give that impression. Enjoy them: it may be a long while before the College finds itself adding a fourth one. Yes, even the Arts Committee membership may have changed by then.

Derek Roe