Gunn was one of the great British portrait artists of the 20th Century, depicting prime ministers, military figures, judges, dons, actors and royalty. His paintings are scrupulously detailed, almost uncompromising in their exploration of their subjects.
His conversation piece depicting the great writers Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), and Maurice Baring (1874-1945), was painted in 1932 and exhibited at the Royal Academy that year. It was given to the National Portrait Gallery in 1960.
The idea for the work came to Gunn at a dinner to celebrate Belloc’s 60th birthday, and this highly unusual full-scale drawing suggests that he may have limited opportunity to paint the three men together. Here, we see him exploring the dynamics of the group and their relationships in the way they stand and sit around the central table. The informal gate-legged table which may well have been a studio prop seen in the drawing is replaced by a more elegant George III mahogany tripod table in the final picture, although the empty picture frame behind remains. The ‘squaring’ grid would have allowed him to easily transfer his composition onto the canvas of the final picture.
The drawing was given by Gunn to the owner of the painting when she saw it left in the studio. It has remained in the family ever since.