Les Cabotins: Portrait of Eric Forbes-Robertson, the actor, with the artist

Details

Haydn Reynolds Mackey (1881-1979)
Les Cabotins: Portrait of Eric Forbes-Robertson, the actor, with the artist
signed and dated 'Hadyn Mackey.1932.' (lower right) and further signed, inscribed and numbered 'Haydn Mackey/88 Finborough Road. S.W. 10/'Les Cabotins':/(Messrs. Eric Forbes Robertson & Haydn Mackey)/1.' (on the reverse of the backboard)
oil on panel
33½ x 25½ in. (85 x 64.7 cm.)

Exhibited

London, Chelsea Arts Club, 1932.
London, Royal Academy, 1933, no. 692.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

The present work is a double portrait of the two artists, Eric Forbes-Robertson (1865-1935), standing in evening dress, and Haydn Mackey, rather scruffily dressed and seated at his side. The title Les Cabotins, or the Ham Actors, refers to the elegant Forbes-Robertson who was a member of a well-known acting family.

The poster hanging above the figures, advertising the 1895 production of Don Quixote at the Lyceum, was designed by William Nicholson and his brother-in-law, James Pryde, who collaborated at the time as the Beggarstaff Brothers. Mackey mirrors the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, with that of himself and the dandy Forbes-Robertson.

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