A Gentleman with a Top Hat (George Manuel Unwin Esq)
- Artist: Nina Hamnett
- Date: 1921
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: unconfirmed: 1473 × 863 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “A Gentleman with a Top Hat (George Manuel Unwin Esq)” by Nina Hamnett, painted in 1921. The canvas measures about 1.47 m by 0.86 m, a generous size that lets her play with detail. Hamnett met the sitter in Paris’s Café Parnasse; Unwin was an English‑Chilean opera student, a cosmopolitan mix that caught her eye. In the studio she arranged a guitar, a Moroccan rug and a pot of red flowers around him, using objects to echo the sitter’s personality and the period’s eclectic tastes.
Hamnett’s aim was clear: “psychological portraits that shall represent accurately the spirit of the age.” She simplified facial features, turning them into a composition of colour and form, which gives the portrait its bold, almost theatrical quality. The top hat, a symbol of formal respectability, sits sharply against a muted backdrop, while the guitarist’s silhouette hints at the musical life Unwin was pursuing.
This work was lent from a private collection in 2021 and now hangs in the 1920‑1940 section of Tate Britain’s Historic and Modern British Art display, a fitting home for a piece that bridges early modern sensibilities with a forward‑looking gaze.
See it in person
A Gentleman with a Top Hat (George Manuel Unwin Esq) is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, 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.
