This triptych was commissioned by Montague Rendall, two years after he had retired as Headmaster of Winchester. He wanted the painting to reflect the notion that Wykehamists should aspire to an ideal of knightly virtue, derived from his belief that the public school system had evolved from the medieval schools of chivalry. He made suggestions about the design, and supplied the artist with photographs. The cost of the commission, including the frame, was about £300.

Left panel (interior): Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (College, 1920-26), wearing a Scholar’s gown.

Central Panel: A mounted knight – Frederick Newey Huggins (College 1918-23) and squire – Patrick Graham Toler Kingsley (E, 1922-27). In the background are the buildings of Winchester College with St Catherine’s Hill behind.

Right Panel (interior) – Adam Denzil Marris (F, 1919-25) wearing the Winchester College Football colours of the OTH (Old Tutors’ Houses).

Left panel (exterior): Edward David Renwick (College 1918-24) standing in College Cloisters. The lower section shows a hot (a scrummage in Winchester College Football) on College Canvas.

Right panel (exterior): a pupil in his toys, probably George Edward Russell Sandars (College, 1914-20), but possibly Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton (College, 1926-31). The latter had posed for the artist in London, but is not otherwise recorded as one of the sitters. The lower section shows John Francis Archibald Browne, Lord Kilmaine (I, 1916-21) in a boat on the River Itchen. This scene is taken directly from one of Rendall’s photographs.

The words on the plinth are adapted from the inscription around War Cloister, devised by Rendall: Look unto the rock whence thou art hewn / Serve as thy brethren served and in peace or in war /Bear thyself ever as CHRIST’S soldier, gentle in all / Things, valiant in action, steadfast in adversity

Literature: J. Sabben-Clare, Winchester College: after 600 years (Southampton, 1981), p. 85; P.G. Nunn, A Pre-Raphaelite Journey : the art of Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (Liverpool, 2012), pp. 29-30; R. Foster (ed.), Fifty Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 21

Provenance: Commissioned by Montague Rendall (Headmaster, 1911-24), and bequeathed to the College on his death in 1950

Location: Wiccamica Room