Queer Places:
Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Rd, London W10 4RA, United Kingdom

William Strang (February 13, 1859 - April 12, 1921) was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1859 and established himself as a prominent Scottish-born artist, renowned printmaker, and portraitist. He studied at London's Slade School of Fine Art under Alphonse Legros, initially making his name as a prolific master of etching who produced more than 750 plates. Early in his career, Strang focused on imaginative, allegorical scenes heavily influenced by a pseudo-Venetian style and his associations with fellow artists like Charles Ricketts and Charles Hazelwood Shannon. After 1900, he shifted his primary focus toward oil painting and portraiture, achieving widespread success capturing the likenesses of distinguished literary, political, and artistic figures of the period, including Thomas Hardy, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and the young Edward, Prince of Wales. His drawing style was heavily inspired by Hans Holbein’s works at Windsor Castle, and he worked across various mediums until his death in 1921.

Strang’s notable connection to LGBTQ history lies in his prominent 1918 portrait of the influential author, poet, and garden designer Vita Sackville-West, titled Lady with a Red Hat (housed in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow). Commissioned by her mother when Vita was twenty years old, the striking oil painting features vibrant scarlet and emerald tones and captures Sackville-West's flamboyant personality, confident independence, and self-styled aristocratic flair. Vita Sackville-West—who was famously married to diplomat and author Harold Nicolson in an open, unconventional union—shocked Edwardian and interwar society through her high-profile romantic and sexual affairs with other women, most notably Violet Trefusis and the novelist Virginia Woolf. Through this masterpiece of portraiture, Strang permanently immortalized an iconic literary figure recognized both for her independent spirit and her prominent place within twentieth-century queer history.

References:

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) – Entry on Strang, William (1859–1921), painter and printmaker by Laurence Binyon (with updates by Anne L. Goodchild), providing a foundational overview of his life, career, and stylistic evolution.
• Dictionary of National Biography (1927 Supplement) – Detailed historical and biographical account of William Strang's life, education under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School, and progression from etching to oil portraiture.
• The Victorian Web – Comprehensive academic resource detailing William Strang’s graphic works, paintings, and diverse technical mastery across mediums.
• Frank Newbolt, The Etchings of William Strang, A.R.A. (London: G. Newnes / New York: Scribner’s) – Contemporary appraisal and breakdown of Strang's vast printmaking output.
• David Strang, The Printing of Etchings and Engravings – Technical insights into the printmaking methods championed by Strang and his contemporaries.
• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (Glasgow Life Museums) – Official repository records for Lady with a Red Hat (1918), documenting the oil-on-canvas portrait of Vita Sackville-West.
• Art UK & The Herald Archives – Critical commentaries exploring the commission of the 1918 portrait by Lady Sackville, its vibrant scarlet-and-emerald palette, and its capturing of Sackville-West's aristocratic independence and queer history.
• Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson) – Biographical work by Vita Sackville-West’s son detailing her unconventional open marriage to Harold Nicolson, her public persona, and family perspectives surrounding her early adult years and artistic representations.

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