Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length

A lithographer and painter, Charles Shannon is perhaps best remembered for his artistic partnership with Charles de Sousy Ricketts (1866-1931) with whom he shared a deep interest in literature, the Pre-Raphaelites, and French symbolism. They were part of the literary and artistic set living in Chelsea in the last decades of the nineteenth century and William Rothenstein commented of their partnership that it 'seemed perfect; each set off the other in looks as in mind. ' Together they collaborated on the design and illustration for Oscar Wilde's books, and wood-engravings for editions of Daphnis and Chloe (1893) and Hero and Leander (1894).