This portrait was acquired by the Library from Randolph William Hughes as part of the Randolph Hughes Collection. Born in Sydney in 1889, Hughes pursued a career as a writer, literary critic and lecturer in French language and literature.

Hughes worked in Europe during the rise of Nazism and was impressed by Hitler’s new Germany. His pro-fascist views and pagan beliefs led to conflict with the literary establishment and he resigned from his academic position at Kings College London in 1935.