6744

Preparatory work

Reading, Sir Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of, Viceroy of India 1926

Standing full-length to the left, his head in three-quarter profile, wearing the pale blue velvet robes of the Grand Master of the Star of India, holding documents in his right hand.

Oil on canvas, 76.3 x 50.8 cm (30 x 20 in.)

Sitters’ Book II, f. 51:  Reading / Decr 1926

Studio Inventory, p. 9 (51): The Rt. Hon. Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading. Study for large portrait now in Government Buildings, New Delhi, India

Private collection

This is a preparatory oil sketch for a formal full-length portrait of the Marquess of Reading, completed in 1927. The finished portrait, commissioned for Delhi’s Government Buildings, proved too large to hang in its destined place, and had to be cut down to a three-quarter length portrait. It is currently untraced, and was the third portrait de László executed of a Viceroy of India, having previously painted Lord Minto [6334] and Lord Hardinge [111008].

De László only made such preparatory works for his largest and most prestigious commissions, in order to fully work out the composition and colour balances before commencing afresh on the canvas.

The present sketch perfectly exemplifies de László’s method of “drawing with his brush.” When compared with the final full-length portrait, one can observe that the contours, bone structure, and subsequent likeness of the sitter’s face are already captured at this very early stage. De László almost always had a clear idea of the composition to adopt, as shown in the present sketch, which is very close to the portrait’s final conception.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6747].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;
John de Laszlo, his youngest son;

Sold at auction at Christie’s South Kensington, 22 July 2009, lot 6

LITERATURE:                                

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1939 London, p. 365

CC 2008