5952

Study portrait

Prince George, Duke of Kent 1935

Head-and-shoulders in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing a grey suit with a red buttonhole, white shirt, blue tie

Oil on board, 92.7 x 68 cm (36 ½ x 26 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László 1935 VII  

Laib L18984 (363) / C8 (10) Prince George, Duke of Kent

NPG 1934 Album, p. 374

Sitters’ Book II, f. 84: George. July 23. 1935

Studio Inventory, p. 28 (152): H.R.H. The Duke of Kent. Exhibited Toronto, 1935 Exhibited Wildensteins, 1937, Painted in two special sittings as a companion to the sketch of the Duchess, (presented to the Duke). Both sketches were sent to Toronto at special request for the Jubilee Exhibition.

Private Collection

In a letter to his great friend, István Bárczy, de László explained the circumstances of this commission: “I now have to do a sketch of the Duke of Kent (wearing the garter I hope) which will go with the portrait sketch of the Duchess of Kent [5954] to Canada, where they are arranging a very important British Exhibition of Arts, for which these pictures were specially requested.”^[1]

The inscription in the artist’s studio inventory notes that two sittings were granted for the present portrait and de László recorded the first in his diary as taking place on 19 July.^[2]  After the second on the 22 July the artist recorded his impressions of the sitter’s personality and physical appearance: “The Duke was amusing in his conversation – never saying anything stupid – always reasonable – to the point – Human – sympathetic – He is in many ways like the king especially His Eyes – and upper Head – in the expression something strange – but good – well drawn Eyes & nice blue colour – strange sift in his moovement [sic] – while sitting like his brothers – nervous – figgety [sic, i.e. “fidgety”] but he is sympathetic – & well build – petty the scull [sic, i.e. “skull”] – is somewhat the shape of an – Egg – as that of the King…His way to speak – The value of his voice – is the same roughness than that of the King’s  …while painting I made him Through a mirror to follow my work – which was a great help to me...On the whole he could not have been more sympathetic than he was – during this two sittings.”^[3] The portrait was finished after a brief third sitting on 23 July.^[4]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5931].

PROVENANCE:          

In the possession of the artist on his death

EXHIBITED:          

•Palace of Art, Toronto, Fifty-Seventh Canadian National Exhibition, 23 August-7 September 1935

•Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., London, Exhibition of Paintings by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., November-December 1937, no. 18

•World Refugee Year Exhibition, [date unknown] no. 276

LITERATURE:        

•László, Philip de, June-November 1935 diary, private collection, 6 July entry, p. 34; 19 July entry, p. 51; 22 July entry, p. 54-56; 23 July 1935 entry, p. 56; 29 July 1935 entry, p. 65; 27 August 1935 entry, p. 97

•László, Lucy de, 1935 diary, private collection, 27 July entry, p. 42

•The Sphere, 24 August 1935, p. 291, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 288, 374

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 266

•DLA022-0136, letter from de László to István Bárczy, 2 May 1935

•DLA162-0479, “László Fülöpöt az angol sajtó az arcképfestészet legnagyobb hősei közé sorozza” [Philip de László is Ranked Among the Greatest Heros of Portrait Painting by the English Press], Pesti Hírlap, 28 November 1937, p. 14

CC 2008