Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937)
1934, oil on canvas, 90.2 x 59.4 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © National Portrait Gallery, London (given by the artist’s son, John de László)

Sir (William Matthew) Flinders Petrie FRS, FBA (1853-1942)

Elected to the Fellowship 1904

After early work surveying British prehistoric monuments, including Stonehenge, where he determined the unit of measurement used for its construction, Petrie travelled to Egypt in 1880 to conduct a survey of the Great Pyramid at Giza - he was the first archaeologist to investigate fully how the pyramids were built. He went on to lead excavations and make major discoveries of both archaeological and philological importance at many of the most significant sites in Egypt and the Middle East. He developed techniques and methods that formed the basis of modern, scientific archaeology. He was the first Edwards Professor of Archaeology and Philology at University College London and his collection of Egyptian antiquities is now housed at the Petrie Museum, UCL.

Born in Budapest, de László had been a successful portraitist in his own country before he moved to London in 1907. He painted several members of the royal family and other members of the aristocracy in the inter-war period, becoming one of Europe’s leading portrait painters.

Arthur Norris (1869-1939)
Exhibited 1934, oil on canvas, 109.9 x 85.1 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London, © National Portrait Gallery, London

William Ralph Inge, KVCO, FBA (1860-1954)

Elected to the Fellowship 1921

After a glittering career as an undergraduate at Cambridge, and a short time teaching at Eton, Inge took up a Fellowship at Hertford College, Oxford, where he delivered an influential series of lectures on the nature of Christian belief. Later, as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, he studied the fourth century Neoplatonist Plotinus. In 1911, Asquith appointed Inge Dean of St Paul’s, in a successful attempt to revive the literary eminence the cathedral had enjoyed in previous eras. From 1921 to 1946, he attained a wide readership through his column in the Evening Standard, the pessimistic nature of which earned him the soubriquet ‘the gloomy Dean’.

Charles L. Hartwell RA (1873-1951)
1928, bronze bust, height: 59 cm, British Academy Collection (presented to the Academy by the Rt Hon Lord Wakefield)

Sir Israel Gollancz, FBA (1863-1930)

Founding Fellow of the Academy; Secretary 1902-30

Gollancz spent the early part of his career lecturing in English, and in 1896 he was appointed the first lecturer in English at Cambridge. In 1903, he took up a chair at King’s College, London, where he helped to transform the English department into one of the University of London’s principal faculties. He served as Secretary of the Academy from its foundation in 1902 until his death. Sir Frederic Kenyon, one of the Academy’s Presidents during Gollancz’s tenure as Secretary said, ‘The whole Academy for its first thirty years of its existence is in a sense his memorial and he would have desired no better one.’ He published widely on early English literature, and was General Editor of the Temple Shakespeare.

Hartwell was a well-regarded portrait sculptor of public figures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Reginald Grenville Eves (1876-1941)
c. 1926, oil on canvas, 56.5 x 46.4 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Frederick Pollock, PC, KC, FBA,  3rd Bt (1845-1937)

Founding Fellow

Pollock was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1868, and was called to the Bar in 1871. As Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford (from 1884), he published a series of books on jurisprudence and politics which established him as a leading analyst and historian of common law. As a scholar, he is best known for his collaboration with Frederic Maitland, FBA, on the History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. He remained committed to the practical workings of the law, acting as Chief Editor of the Law Reports from 1895 to 1935, drafting several Parliamentary bills, and serving on a number of Royal Commissions.

Influenced by Sargent, Eves was one of the most popular portrait painters of his time. His sitters were drawn from public life and from the arts.

Hon. John Collier (1850-1934)
Oil on canvas, 58.5 x 45.0 cm, British Academy Collection

Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, OM, FBA (1841-1905)

Founding Fellow

Jebb began his career as a scholar and translator of Greek at Oxford, as both an undergraduate and Fellow of Trinity College. While at Oxford and later as Chair of Greek in the University of Glasgow, he published a number of works on, and translations of, ancient Greek poetry, including an edition of Sophocles. His work on modern Greece and Greek earned him the Order of the Saviour from the King of Greece. He was the first seriously to propose a British research institute in Athens, and he was central in planning and raising funds for the establishment of the British School there in 1886. He also played a significant role in the foundation of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. He ended his career as Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, and was MP for the University, serving for three terms.

Georgina Brackenbury (1866-1949)
1894, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm, lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London © Copyright reserved; collection National Portrait Gallery, London (given by the sitter’s family, 1933)

Harold Lee-Dillon, CH, FBA, 17th Viscount Dillon (1844-1932)

Founding Fellow

After a career in the army, Lee-Dillon became one of Britain’s leading authorities on the history of arms and armour and medieval costume. He was the first curator of the Tower of London Armouries, and during his tenure he set the foundations for their conversion into a modern museum. During the course of his career he held many official posts including Chairman of the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, President of the Royal Archaeological Institute and of the Society of Antiquaries, Trustee of the British Museum and of the Wallace Collection, and Antiquary to the Royal Academy.

Brackenbury was a painter and miniaturist active in London in 1891 to 1907. She is best known for her portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst.