3585

Augustus Philip Brandt 1927

Half-length slightly to the right, almost full face looking away from the viewer, wearing a dark jacket and waistcoat with a gold watch-chain, a wing collar and black tie with a pearl tie pin, against a dark background

Oil on canvas, 87.7 x 63.5 cm (34 ½ x 25 in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1927. I. 

NPG Album, 1927-28, p. 11

Sitters’ Book II, f. 51: Augr P Brandt  January 1927

Private Collection

Between 1925 and 1928, de László painted Augustus Brandt, his wife Jean [3591], and their two daughters Gwen [3671] and Jean [3600], or the ‘quartett’,^[1] in Augustus Brandt’s own words. The artist being particularly busy, it took the Brandts a lot of determination and persistence to see their commissions carried out, as demonstrated by their extensive correspondence – some fifty-one letters – with de László. The first family portrait he painted was of their youngest daughter Gwen in 1925,^[2] although the present picture was the first to be commissioned, in 1924.

With his Hanoverian beard, Augustus Brandt was often taken for George V, which amused him a great deal, but despite his handsome features, he had to wait for three years to be painted by de László. As early as 11 August 1924, Mrs Brandt had written to the artist: “Any chance of your coming here to see us, in Aug – or Sept or of your Painting him in November or early Dec – so I can have his Portrait for Xmas?”^[3] 

On 6 May 1926, Augustus Brandt wrote with great tact to the artist, listing the hurdles he encountered: “I should like to remind you not to forget me entirely. If you recollect you had given me two sittings for October 6th & 7th [1925], just prior to your departure for America, but unfortunately for me you had to cancel them at the last moment, as you had been held up on account of bad light on some of the canvases you had in hand.^[4] However you were good enough to say that you would paint me on your return which you expected to be January.^[5] As my portrait is intended to hang in our Banking Hall alongside 3 generations of partners I should like it to be worthy of its place & if at all possible I should like to be painted by you. […] Of course if it cannot be done I shall – although with much regret – quite understand it.”^[6] Further postponements took place, however, and it was eventually a firm letter from Mrs Brandt which must have prompted de László to get down to painting her husband’s portrait: “Here I am again – after months in America – to trace you – to keep your promise - & to paint my husband’s portrait. You have been promising and promising so, be good, & kind, & keep your promises & paint him at once.”^[7]

Although the artist did not record the sittings in his appointment book, a letter dated 12 January from Augustus Brandt^[8] reveals that sittings took place in mid-January, most probably on consecutive days, since de László received his £315 honorarium^[9] on 15 January. In the letter enclosing payment, the sitter expressed his gratitude to de László: “thank you […] for the time & trouble you have taken to make my portrait the success that it is. It will always remain a treasured recollection of the pleasant hours spent in your company & an ornament to my house & after my death to my children [’s] home.”^[10]

The present portrait originally hung in the premises of the family bank founded by Emmanuel Brandt, and a copy was made by Sydney Kendrick, de László’s most favoured authorised copyist, for the Brandts’s home, Castle Hill in Bletchingley, Surrey.

Augustus Philip Brandt, the eldest of four brothers, was born in London on 15 April 1871 to Augustus Ferdinand Brandt (died 1904) of Hamburg, Germany, and Elizabeth von Oesterreich, of St Petersburg. In 1895 he became a partner in the family firm of merchant bankers, Wm. Brandt’s Sons & Company which had been founded by his ancestor Emmanuel Brandt in 1805 and developed into a banking business by his father Augustus Ferdinand after 1859. The sitter was responsible for the American business of the bank. The firm consisted of banking, timber, commodity and insurance businesses.^[11] Every day of his banking career, Augustus Brandt lunched at the same City of London chophouse with two of his brothers, Henry and Rudi.

During a trip to Egypt, he fell in love with Jean Champion Garmany [3591], of Savannah, Georgia, an effervescent young woman who was travelling in Europe with her mother in an attempt to avoid the scandal of a first secret marriage. They were married in May 1898. They had two daughters: Jean (born 1900) [3600] and Gwendolen ‘Gwen’ (born 1904) [6371]. Augustus Brandt was a retiring and private man, especially in contrast to his effusively sociable wife, who entertained lavishly at Castle Hill. His eldest grandson later recalled that he traditionally insisted that he sat next to him at dinner whenever he went to stay. Augustus’s nephew, Bill Brandt, who he took under his wing, immortalized life at Bletchingley in his photographs.

At Castle Hill Augustus Brandt happily retreated from time to time to his small studio there. A highly skilled craftsman of furniture in wood, his workshop was converted from part of the stables. Another retreat was his large garden, in which he sat for long periods gazing out at the view over the weald. Whenever he could, he would also go on walking expeditions in the Bavarian Alps, often taking his daughter Gwen as his companion.

He died at Bletchingley, where he is buried, on 30 November 1952.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•McCleave, David John, Bletchingley and the Grange: A Pictorial and Social History, Shakespeare Editorial, 2023, p. 31, ill.

•DLA057-0037, letter from Jean Garmany Brandt to de László, 11 August 1924

•DLA054-0006, letter from Augustus Brandt to de László, 6 May 1926

•DLA057-0027, letter from Jean Brandt to de László, 7 January 1927

•DLA057-0026, letter from Augustus Brandt to de László, 12 January 1927

•DLA057-0029, letter from Augustus Brandt to P.A. de László, 15 January 1927

With our grateful thanks to Edwin Mullins, one of the sitter’s grandsons, for his help with the biography

CC 2012