3846

Portrait drawing 

Constance Ellen Guinness 1902

Head and shoulders in profile to the right, almost full face, turned back towards the viewer, wearing a straw hat with a flat brim and dark band round it

Sepia chalk on buff paper, 36.2 x 29.2 cm (14 ¼ x 11 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed lower right: L.F.E. / Roteneuf   

Inscribed verso: Constance Ellen Guinness / Brittany 1902 Original drawing by Philip de Laszlo / given by Philip de Laszlo to Eva Frances Guinness / who gave it to Bridget Craig-Brown [in Bridget Craig-Brown’s hand]

Sitters' Book I, f. 23: In rememberance of Rotheneuf / 1902 Aug 22. / Constance Guinness.

Private Collection

Constance was the younger sister of the artist’s wife Lucy and went with the de László family on their holiday to Brittany in 1902. This drawing was made in Rothéneuf and Constance’s name appears in the artist’s Sitters’ Book dated 22 August, followed by the signatures of Philip de László, Lucy, her sister Eva and a Hungarian family friend, the art historian Gábor de Térey [11881].  

Throughout his career de László painted and drew for pleasure while on holiday, symptomatic of his prodigious energy for painting. At least twelve pictures have been identified as having been made in Rothéneuf, a range of landscapes, portraits and genre pictures. Two more portraits of Constance, a drawing [3840] and an oil [3842], a drawing of Eva [5437], two of Lucy [11474] [11064], studies of a Breton girl [8978] [2544], a widow [8984] and several landscapes [8139] [8987] [112156].

Constance Ellen Guinness was the youngest of the twelve children of Henry Guinness (1829-1893) and his wife Emelina Brown (1829-1906) of Burton Hall, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. She married Captain Ernest Craig-Brown (1871-1966), of The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1903. They spent much of their married life in India where her husband was Brigadier-General commanding the Cameron Highlanders and based in Karachi, Simla and Kashmir. They had two daughters, Jean (born 1904), Bridget (born 1908) and a son, Alan (born 1912). Bridget spent many of her school holidays with the artist and his family while her parents were living abroad. De László drew the sitter's husband in 1908 [3876], her father-in-law Thomas Craig-Brown in 1912 [3883] and her three children on a number of occasions.

The sitter died in 1964; her husband survived her for two years.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3842].

PROVENANCE:

Bridget Craig-Brown, daughter of the sitter

KF 2017