110831

Edith Hope Iselin 1930

Standing three-quarter length, wearing a white silk chemise the right strap slipped off her shoulder and a shot silk purple and gold stole draped over her head and shoulders

Oil on canvas, 163 x 91cm (64 ¾ x 36 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / London / 1930

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 66: Edith Hope Iselin  June 12, 1930           

Private Collection

Edith Hope Iselin was filmed in the studio gardens at 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead, wearing the dress and veil in which she was painted. The camera, a Ciné-Kodak model B, had been a gift from George Eastman to de László after painting his portrait in 1926.^[1] It was the first 16mm motion-picture camera and the film had to be specially sent to America for developing. The films are a unique record of the artist’s life and capture many of his friends, family, and sitters throughout the late twenties until the artist’s death in 1937.  

That there were numerous sittings for this dramatic and striking picture is suggested by the sitter signing the Artist’s Sitters’ Book 12 June 1930 and the final sitting taking place on 10 July.^[2] The artist produced three preparatory drawings in order to work out how best to render the pose and complicated drapery. These were never transferred to the canvas, de László preferring to begin painting directly, noting: “I draw with my brush and all my painting is drawing.”^[3]

The portrait was reproduced in The Art News and the artist sent a copy to his brother Marczi, who praised the work: “I have never yet seen such a beautiful and interesting work by you ... spontaneous, lightly and broadly … and in an extraordinary pose.”^[4] De László also painted the sitter’s half-sister Nora, Countess Colloredo-Mannsfeld, in 1913 and her mother in 1934.

Edith Hope Iselin was the daughter of Charles Oliver Iselin (1854-1932) of New York, a well-known banker and yachtsman, and his second wife, Hope Goddard (1868-1970). She spent much of her childhood at Hopelands, in Aiken, South Carolina, the winter home of her parents and attended Fermata school there. The estate was later given to the city of Aiken and is now a public garden.^[5] In June 1924 Edith was presented at the court of King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace, accompanied by her mother.^[6] At the time this portrait was painted she lived with her parents at 36 E. 72nd St. in New York.^[7]

In December 1935, while visiting friends in Middleburg, South Carolina, Edith secretly married Archer Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. Archer G. Jones, of Richmond, Virginia. The marriage was not made public until November 1936, by which time the couple were settled in Denver, Colorado with their infant son Archer Iselin Jones.^[8] The marriage was a brief one and the sitter lived much of the rest of her life in Arizona where she owned a horse ranch near Tucson. She died at her apartment in the city on 23 March 2001, aged 94.^[9]

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby’s, 15 July 2015, lot 58;

Richard Green, London

EXHIBITED:

•M. Knoedler & Co., New York, An Exhibition of Portraits by P.A. de László, 4-16 January 1932, no. 8

•Richard Green, London, A Flair for Fashion: Society Portraits 1888-1944, September-October 2017, no. 21

LITERATURE:

•The Art News, Vol. XXX, n˚14, New York, 2 January 1932, front cover, ill.

•Jewell, Edward Alden, “Portraits by de László Shown,” The New York Times, Tuesday, 5 January 1932,  

 p. 28

•“Every Court But China,” Time Magazine, 25 January 1932

•Holme, C.G., ed., Painting a Portrait by de László, in How To Do It Series no. 6, Introduction by A.L.

 Baldry, The Studio Ltd., 1934

•Morris, Susan, and Hall, Rachel Boyd, A Flair for Fashion: Society Portraits 1888-1944 (Exhibition Catalogue), Richard Green, London, 2017, pp. 92-95, ill. p. 93 and 95 (detail)

•DLA032-0047, letter from Marczell László to de László, 5 February 1932

•DLA079-0096, letter from de László (London) to Adolph Ochs, 10 July 1930

KF 2015