Who is this?

[Nabean]

Still no answers from the V&A. Here is an enlarged view of the gentleman in question.

[japeflakes]

Just a thought but looks like Elgar to me.... totally wrong but....

[Nabean]

No, the nose is wrong!

[Treetotal]

I agree with Japeflakes....well spotted. The facial hair is the same and the wrinkles between his eyebrows are the same.
Carol

[JenB]

I'm pretty sure it's not Elgar.
Look at the photos here
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/edward-elgar

[arthurk]

Elgar did have a rather distinctive nose, when seen from the right angle, but this one seems smaller and possibly a bit turned up. Also, in his later years Elgar appears to have been rather, shall we say... portly.

There's also the question of dating. The original estimate for this photo was around 1900, give or take a bit, but as Elgar was born in 1857, this would be far too old for him. I'd suggest our sitter would probably have been born no later than about 1840.

[still_looking]

The National Portrait Gallery have a few thousand portraits by Lafayette, they aren't all available as images though.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person?sort=dateDesc&LinkID=mp08092&displayNo=60&wPage=0

Incidentally if sorted by 'gallery recommended' then you can safely ignore the first 400 as I've been through those.

S_L

[dobfarm]

Hi japeflakes

Look at the ear. (see link below) Elgar had an unusual slight low angled flat bottom edge about the narrow long thin lob similar to (though harder to see behind his hair) ear of your gentleman in the image you posted.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/english-composer-sir-edward-william-elgar-news-photo/646264948?adppopup=true


Notice his left eye brow (Your Right looking at image) the corner to the nose bridge is a sharp corner in link of Elgar and your gentleman's image

[McGroger]

I've flipped the image of the unknown gentleman to better line them up but I think it's pretty clear when they're side by side that most of their respective features don't match.
Peter