111977

UNTRACED

Mrs. James Smith Bush, née Caroline Lowe Patterson1932

Half-length to the left, head turned slightly to the right looking away, wearing an evening dress and a chiffon stole which she holds with her right hand and a necklace which separates into three chains at the front

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1932 miami III  

Juley negative J0058577: Patterson, Mrs. R.D. – Dayton, OH [indicating the sitter’s mother]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 72: Caroline Patterson Bush / Miami Beach / Florida / 1932 

In October 1931, de László made his fourth visit to the United States. On Christmas Day he stayed with Mrs Robert Dun Patterson and recorded in his diary that she had: “a crowded Xmas party to tea – many interesting people present – & showed me her very pretty young daughter about 22. years old married & wishes me to paint her in New York.”^[1] He was too pressed for commissions to complete the portrait there but did so during his stay with the Firestone family in Miami, Florida during Easter 1932. During his stay the artist also completed two portraits of Mr and Mrs Harvey S. Firestone Sr [110649] [11334], their daughter Elizabeth Idabelle [111303] and their grand-daughters, Elizabeth [11586] and Martha [111667].

Caroline Lowe Patterson was born 13 April 1907 in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Robert Dun Patterson (1881-1945) and Henrietta Churchill Lowe (1882-1963). Her father’s family had founded the National Cash Register (NCR), a company established to manufacture and sell the first mechanical cash register. She was presented at Court to King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace in June 1926.

On 19 January 1929, in Dayton, she married James Smith Bush (1901-1978), son of Samuel Prescott Bush (1863-1948) and Flora Sheldon Bush (1872-1920) of Columbus, Ohio. There were three daughters of the marriage. Their eldest daughter, Henrietta (born 1929), was painted by de László in 1934 [110664]. Their other daughters were Caroline (born 1933?) and Flora (born 1935). The couple divorced in 1948 and the sitter married in 1960, as her second husband, George Wilson Shaw.

The sitter died 2 March 1986 and was buried at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, Dayton, Ohio.

LITERATURE:

•The Spur, 1933, ill.^[2]

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, 25 December entry, p. 363

MD 2013