13375

Mrs James Buchanan Duke, née Nanaline Holt Inman 1926

Seated half-length slightly to the left, full face to the viewer, wearing a green silk shawl over a white camisole, and a pearl necklace

Oil on canvas, 101 x 74.9 cm (39 ¾ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1926

Sitters’ Book II, f. 47: Nanaline H. Duke / Feb 13th 1926

Newport Restoration Foundation

De László made his third visit to the United States from October 1925 to April 1926 travelling to  New York and Washington, D.C., where this portrait was painted. Sittings are recorded in the artist’s appointment diary between 10 and 14 February 1926. The necklace of natural pearls that the sitter wears in this portrait is thought to be that given to her by her husband James B. Duke in 1907 and bought at J. Dreicer & Sons, New York, for the astonishing sum of $180,000, the equivalent of £3,920,000 in 2018.^[1] 

Nanaline ‘Nannie’ Lee Holt was born 19 September 1869, in Macon, Georgia, daughter of Judge Thaddeus Goode Holt (1836-1886) and his wife Florine Russell Holt. In 1890 the sitter married William Henry Inman (1863-1902), a businessman in the cotton industry. They had two sons, William (born 1891) and Walker (born 1894). Her husband died in 1902 and she was left with a substantial fortune.

In July 1907 she married James Buchanan “Buck” Duke (1856-1925), president of the American Tobacco Company.^[2] Their daughter Doris (born 1912) was known as the “million dollar baby.” The Dukes bought a house on Fifth Avenue in New York and Duke Farms, in northern New Jersey. In 1912 they rented a house in London for the season and Nanaline was presented at Court on 15 March. In 1922 they acquired Rough Point, a 17th century English style home built for Frederick Vanderbilt (1856-1938), in Newport, Rhode Island. It was purchased from Mrs William Bateman Leeds [7809] who had married Prince Christopher of Greece [7802] and moved to Europe. Nanaline was widowed in 1925, shortly after the renovations to Rough Point were complete.

The sitter died 12 April 1962. She passed her jewellery collection of important pieces by Cartier and Tiffany to her daughter and they were sold at Christie’s in 2004.

EXHIBITED:

•Knoedler Galleries, New York, An Exhibition of Portraits by P. A. de Laszlo, M.V.O., 4-16 January 1932, no.  2

LITERATURE:

•Jewell, Edward Alden, “Portraits by de László Shown,” The New York Times, Tuesday, 5 January 1932, p. 28

•“Every Court But China,” Time Magazine, 25 January 1932

•Zapata, Janet, Ulysses Dietz & Zette Emmons, Gems from the East and West: The Doris Duke Jewelry Collection, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, New York, 2003, p. 34, ill.

MD & KF 2018