The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIRST EDITIONS OF
ORLANDO: A BIOGRAPHY
Dust-jacket of first English edition (1928): an allegorical portrait c. 1570, formerly in the Worthing Museum & Art Gallery; the painting was destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War. Reproductions of the portrait appear in editions of Orlando edited by J. H. Stape (Shakespeare Head Press, 1998, p. [xxxii]; and see note, pp. 191-2) and by Brenda Lyons (Penguin Books, 1993, p. [v]). See also J. H. Stape, ‘“The Man at Worthing” and the Author of “the Most Insipid Verse She Had Ever Read”: Two Allusions in Orlando’, Virginia Woolf Miscellany, No. 50 (Fall 1997), pp. 5-6.
(1) Frontispiece: ‘Orlando as a Boy’: The Hon. Edward Sackville from ‘The Two Sons of Edward, 4th Earl of Dorset’ by Cornelius Nuie, in Lord Sackville’s private apartments, Knole.
(2) ‘The Russian Princess as a Child’: Angelica Bell, aged 9, photographed by Vanessa Bell.
(3) ‘The Archduchess Harriet’: Mary, 4th Countess of Dorset, by Marcus Gheeraerts, in Lord Sackville’s private apartments, Knole.
(4) ‘Orlando as Ambassador’: Lionel Sackville, 7th Earl & 1st Duke of Dorset, by Rosalba Carriera, in Knole collection.
(5) ‘Orlando on her return to England’: Vita Sackville-West photographed by Lenare, 2 November 1927.
(6) ‘Orlando about the year 1840’: Vita Sackville-West photographed by Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant, 14 November 1927.
(7) ‘Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire’: Unknown man c. 1820 by unknown artist, in Nigel Nicolson’s private collection, Sissinghurst.
(8) ‘Orlando at the present time’: Vita Sackville-West at Long Barn, photographed probably by Leonard Woolf, 29 April 1928.
Virginia and Vita visited Knole to choose portraits for Orlando: (1), (3) and (4), above, were used. For further information, see Virginia Woolf’s Letters, Vol. III, [14
October ]1927, [30 October 1927], [6 November 1927], [11 November 1927], [5 December 1927], [17 April 1928], [27 April 1928], 29 April [1928], [17 June 1928]. See also ‘A Note on the Illustrations’, Orlando, edited by Brenda Lyons with an Introduction and Notes by Sandra M. Gilbert (Penguin Books, 1993), pp. xlvii-xlix; and ‘Appendix D: The Illustrations’, Orlando: The Original Holograph Draft, transcribed and edited by Stuart N. Clarke (S N Clarke, 1993), pp. 35-6.
Copyright © Sheila M. Wilkinson, Stuart N. Clarke, & VWSGB 2001
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