Sir Felix John Morgan Brunner, 3rd Baronet Brunner (1897-1982) as an Artillery Officer

This 1914 portrait of Sir Felix Brunner as a young artillery officer was painted in the year the First World War began, a coincidence that gives the image particular historical resonance. Felix John Morgan Brunner (1897-1982) was from a prominent Liberal political family — his grandfather Sir John Brunner had been a significant Liberal MP — and he would go on to become a baronet and public figure in his own right. Painted when Brunner was seventeen and just entering military service, the portrait captures him at the threshold of the most dangerous years of the conflict. Fildes had extensive experience with military portraiture from his royal commissions, and he applies that expertise here to a more personal commission likely requested by the Brunner family. The National Trust's custody of the work suggests it remained in the family's country house until eventual public acquisition.

The artillery officer's uniform structures the composition in a manner consistent with Fildes's military and royal portraiture practice. The young sitter's face is rendered with particular care — the relative youth and the gravity of the military context create an emotional contrast that the painter navigates sensitively.