Philip Streatfeild
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James Philip Sydney Streatfeild (November 5, 1879-1915) was an English painter, bohemian and homosexual. Born in Clapham of a landed gentry family, he studied at art college. A successful artist, he was acquainted with London society and was a friend of Robert Ross, patron of the arts and Oscar Wilde's intimate.
Starting in 1913 he had an affair with Noel Coward, whom he had met through Noel's mother who charred for him. Shortly before his 1915 death from tuberculosis he extracted a promise from his friend, Mrs. Astley-Cooper, to look after the boy, ("take Noël Coward home with you, he is delicate and wants taking care of") and she took him under her protection. <ref>RICHARD EYRE, Changing Stages</ref><ref>Philip Hoare, Noel Coward: A Biography p.32-33</ref><ref>"At the same time, his sexual and social lives were developing precociously - hand in hand, so to speak. At the age of 14, he had been taken up by the 35-year-old painter Philip Streatfeild (for whom his mother occasionally charred) and quickly became part of Streatfeild's circle of admiring older men, which included the novelist Hugh Walpole; he would join them on their holidays, posing on the rocks for them." in "Englishman Abroad," The Guardian Wednesday April 19, 2006 [1]</ref>
Streatfeild was known for taking an erotic interest in boys,<ref>Noel Coward: Biographical Sketch by John Kenrick[2]</ref> and for being a member of the Uranian Society.
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