Description

Half length, three quarter turned portrait of Aislabie. Wearing black coat, patterned waistcoat and black cravat. Right hand rests on a red book entitled 'M.C.C. Subscribers to Matches'.

Display caption

Portrait of Benjamin Aislabie, 1814 Henry Edward Dawe (1790 – 1848) MCC Collection: commissioned, 1814 Oil on canvas TN.2009.2927 Benjamin Aislabie was the first Secretary of MCC, a post he held from 1822-1842, and President in 1823. He served the Club for over 40 years and was renowned as an after-dinner speaker, often performing his own cricket songs and poems. He himself was the subject of just such a song (see below) and is also mentioned in Tom Brown’s Schooldays He doats on the game, has played many a year Weighs at least seventeen stone, on his pins rather queer; But he still takes the bat, and there’s no better fun Than to see him when batting attempting a run Henry Edward Dawe was a pupil at the Royal Academy and later an associate at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Better known for his engravings, a mezzotint of this portrait is held by both MCC and the National Portrait Gallery.