Christopher Isherwood
- Artist: Sir William Menzies Coldstream
- Date: circa 1937
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 24 in. x 20 1/8 in. (610 mm x 510 mm) overall
- Portrays: Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
In this oil on canvas portrait, Sir William Menzies Coldstream shows Christopher Isherwood relaxed at rest. The painting measures just over two feet across, a modest size that lets you read the painter’s careful brushwork up close to the face. Look at the gentle play of light on his cheek and eyes—it gives him a quiet, almost thoughtful air.
Coldstream was working in the late 1930s, capturing contemporary figures with an elegant, almost photographic realism. The sitter—Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood, the novelist who would later write about Caribbean life—appears here before he turned to his famous novels of the 1940s and 1950s.
The canvas is laid flat; you can see the subtle layering in the background that makes the figure pop. It feels like a small window into a moment between Isherwood’s early life and later literary fame, framed by Coldstream’s careful handling of oil paint.
See it in person
Christopher Isherwood is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
