Cabinet photo portrait

Oval image, printed on rectangular leaf, and mounted on studio board. The image c. 66 mm tall, the mount c. 165 mm tall. Oxford: H. P. Clifford, 11 Woodstock Road.

With, on the verso two gift inscriptions by Louise Imogen Guiney, Johnson's friend and American champion. The first is to one “H.E.C. from L.I.G. Feb. 14, 1903," the second “To Rev. J. J. Daly, S.J. L.I.G. Oxford. 1912." With a note by Guiney identifying “Lionel Johnson, about 1890." Daly was a literary teacher-priest of Chicago and Detroit, and was one of the editors of the journal America, where he wrote on Guiney, with whom he seems to have had an epistolary friendship. The H.E.C. reference is a mystery.

Reproduced in Wright's 1906 book on Pater. Image somewhat faded, but a rare image of Johnson, fully confirming his unearthly changeling persona - the photographer appears to have intervened to emphasise Johnson's features, particularly around the eyes, but has done little to reduce the manchild impression. There are very few photographs of Johnson, who seems to have formally renounced being photographed, and this unsettling image may be reason enough: Daly's note on the accompanying envelope quotes Guiney as having described it as the "Only adult portrait" of Johnson.

Stock Code: 237338