In this painting, the sitter faces away from the viewer to the right and is dressed smartly. This man is Richard Peyton, a local businessman and musical patron, who in 1904 put forward £10,000 for the establishment of a Musical Chair at Birmingham University. He advanced this sum on the condition that the post would first and foremost be offered to Edward Elgar, whom he expected to accept it. Elgar did accept the post but resigned after four years to the composer Granville Bantock. This painting was presented to the University by John Peyton, the great nephew of Peyton, in 1978.