111303

Elizabeth Idabelle Firestone, later Mrs Raymond Graham 1932

Seated three-quarter length, slightly to the right but looking to the viewer, her hair loose, wearing a white 18th century style dress with a standing collar and flounced skirt.

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower left: de László 1932 / miami

Coupures, the Artist’s Scrapbook, p. 150, where inscribed by the artist: Miss Firestone. miami. 1932. march 

Juley negative 058605

Sitters’ Book II, f. 72: Elizabeth Idabelle Firestone. – March 30, 1932. / Miami Beach, Florida. / U.S.A.

Private Collection

The Firestone family were amongst de László’s most important American patrons and he painted seven their number between 1928 and 1932. First was the wife of the sitter’s nephew, Mrs Harvey Firestone Jr [110828], in Paris in 1928 and then a pendant portrait of her husband [110650] in Washington D.C., during his fourth visit to the United States in 1931-32. De László spent Easter 1932 staying with the Firestones in Miami, Florida and completed two large portraits of the sitter’s parents, Mr and Mrs Harvey Firestone Sr [110649][11334] and the sitter’s two nieces, Elizabeth [111586] and Martha [111667].

The artist made at least two preparatory drawings of the sitter [5078 recto and verso], which remained in his studio on his death and are today in the possession of descendants of the artist.

Elizabeth Idabelle Firestone was born on 9 May 1914, in Akron, Ohio, the only daughter of Harvey S. Firestone Sr (1868-1938), founder and president of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and Idabelle Smith (1874-1954). She grew up in Akron and spent the winters at the Firestone family estate, Harbel Villa, Miami Beach, Florida, which her parents acquired in 1924. She attended Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and graduated from Smith College in June 1938.

On 3 September 1938, she married Ray Austin Graham Jr, son of the late Mr Graham of Graham-Paige Automobiles, at Harbel Manor, the family home in Akron, Ohio.^[1] Her father had died in February that year. They had two children, Carter (born 1937) and Roberta (born 1938). Her husband served as an official with the National Defence Commission, Washington, D.C., and they settled in nearby McLean, Virginia.

Elizabeth died young of a streptococcus infection on 12 February 1941 and was buried at Columbiana Cemetery, Ohio.^[2]

MD 2013