George Ridding (1828-1904) was a Scholar of Winchester College, 1840-46; Commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, 1846-51; Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, 1851-1863 (and Tutor, 1853-63); Second Master of Winchester, 1863-67; Headmaster of Winchester, 1867-84; Bishop of Southwell, 1884-1904.

An engraving after the painting was published by James Ryman of Oxford in 1880.

Literature: Winchester Archaeological Society, Winchester College: its history, buildings and customs (Winchester, 1926), p. 161; R. Custance (ed.), Winchester College, sixth-centenary essays (Oxford, 1982), pl. 40; F. G. Kenyon, revised by M.C. Curthoys, ‘Ridding, George, (1828-1904)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004); R. Foster (ed.), Fifty Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 19

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1879 (no. 570)

Provenance: Commissioned by the sitter’s former pupils and presented to him as a wedding gift; at Winchester College by the 1920s

Location: School