Portraits are not common in Eliot Hodgkin’s oeuvre, as he is most well- known for intricate tempera still life paintings which he made from the 1950’s onwards. However, records of Hodgkin’s work show that he was more experimental in his early years and, although there are few known portraits by him, as an artist trying to establish himself he would have most likely looked for commissions.

It is highly likely this portrait was commissioned by the sitter, Douglas Fitzpatrick or Hodgkin’s friend Henry Thomas Upcher. Eliot Hodgkin knew Thomas Upcher from Harrow School where they were both in West Acre House between 1920-1924. Initial research found no link between Hodgkin and Fitzpatrick until it was discovered Fitzpatrick lived for some time at Sheringham Hall, Norfolk which was owned by his life-long companion, Thomas Upcher, who inherited the estate in 1954.

Indeed this picture was painted before their time in Sheringham, circa 1930, suggesting Fitzpatrick and Upcher had known each other long before Fitzpatrick moved to the estate. Information in letters from the Upcher Estate at the Norfolk Record Office reference the two as far back as 1930 travelling around Europe. Furthermore a letter dated March 1922 from Upcher to his father mentions Eliot Hodgkin accompanying him to some sort of Sporting event.

Lynn Wardle remembers Thomas Upcher and Douglas Fitzpatrick :

[I] First became aquainted [sic]with Tom Upcher and Douglas Fitz Patrick in 1953 when they were living at Bradfield Hall which they rented from the Alstons. Tom inherited Sheringham in 1954 and restored much of the interior, creating a music room from the original dining room in the Empire style where records of Adelina Patti singing opera or Duggie Bing singing comedy songs would be played to entertain guests. I believe that the gramaphone[sic] collection is now at Holkam Hall in the Bygone section. I have seen douglas[sic] making gramaphone[sic] needles from bamboo. He also had cylinder records. His mothers portrait was half way up the stairs, It was said that she was related to the Kaiser. Tom sold land for approx £500,000 for housing so as to endow the Hall when giving it to the National Trust. (www.scenicnorfolk.co.uk)

The work is beautifully finished, demonstrating a fine attention to detail with an Art Deco style resonant of the time it was made. If Fitzpatrick was of similar age to Hodgkin and Upcher, this would make him roughly 25 at the time of the picture, which is consistent with the figure portrayed.

The references to music and literature, together with cars, planes, dogs and flowers must have had symbolic and personal significance to Fitzpatrick, or even Upcher, but the meaning can only be hypothesized as there is no written description. In this sense the role of the picture has changed from something very personal and private for one or two individuals, to an important piece of documentation and heritage, almost like a puzzle, the true meaning of which today’s viewers can only speculate. The mystery of the images together with the fact that this is a rare and unconventional work by a well-known Modern British artist, that surfaced in California, only adds to the intrigue of the painting.