7488

Mrs Frederick Trouton, née Annie Fowler, with her daughters Mary and Ruth 1915

Mrs Trouton seated, almost full-length, on a gilt upholstered sofa, wearing a black dress over a frilled blouse and a choker necklace, Mary seated beside her mother on a rose-pink cushion and wearing a white dress with puffed sleeves and a golden yellow sash, Ruth standing behind the sofa, wearing a similar dress

Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 116. 9 cm (60 x 46 in.)

Inscribed lower left: P. A. de László / 1915   

Laib  L7831(5) / C27(18) Trouton Family Group

NPG Album 1915-16, p. 6

Private Collection

De László noted eleven sittings for this portrait in his appointment diary for 1915, eight between 8 and 30 June and 3, 5, 6 July at his studio on Campden Hill, Kensington. According to a granddaughter of Mrs Trouton, de László asked her to close her mouth so that he could paint it, which had the desired effect of preventing her from expressing her opinions which must have differed from his. A study for this portrait [112467] remained in the artist’s studio at his death, and was later destroyed by his executors.

Annie Maria Fowler was born in 1864 in Whalley, Chester, the daughter of George Fowler (1826-1892) of Liverpool, and his wife Maria. She married Professor Frederick Thomas Trouton (1863-1922), 28 June 1887 in Sawrey, Lancashire and they settled in Dublin. There were four sons and three daughters of the marriage: Frederick (born 1892), Desmond (born 1893), Maurice (born 1895) [7521], Rupert (born 1897), Anne (born 1900) [11580], Ruth (born 1904) [7488] and Mary (born 1906) [7488].

The family moved to London in 1901 and Professor Trouton [5468] took up the post of Quain Professor of Physics at University College London. Lucy de László and Frederick were cousins on the Guinness side, and the two families became close friends and neighbours in Tilford, Surrey. The Troutons’ country house, Melbreck, was a short walk from Pine Woods and Hammondswood, two houses the de László family rented in the summer months from 1912. Lucy's sister Eva was also nearby at The Willows. Lucy’s diaries mention numerous meetings for lunch and dinner and her eldest son Henry [11664] spent many holidays staying with the Troutons.

After the paralysis of her husband after an operation in 1914 and the death of their sons Frederick [7519] and Desmond [11593] in the First World War, the family moved to the Rookery in Downe, Kent. There Professor Trouton died in 1922. Annie Trouton died at the Priory Hospital, Roehampton in 1928.

For biographical notes on Ruth and Mary Trouton, see [7529].

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Sold by Christopher Wood, London, 2007

LITERATURE:

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 71, ill.  

•László, Lucy de, 1915 diary, private collection, 28 June entry, p. 90; 30 June entry, p. 90

KF 2017