2139

Mrs Frederick Balfour, née Gertrude Norman 1920

Half-length to the right, head turned full face and looking to the viewer, wearing a cream and gold evening dress, a brocade stole and a beaded necklace with a green tassel

Oil on canvas, 87 x 59 cm (34 ¼ x 23 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1920. III

Laib L9312 (353) / C2(8A)  

NPG Album 1917-21, p. 101 where labelled by the artist: Mrs. F. Balfour

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 14: Gertrude Balfour. March 19. 1920

Private Collection

Gertrude Balfour was the first member of the Balfour family to sit for de László and a friendship developed between the two families. While painting her son Alastair in 1931 [3551] the artist noted in his diary that she was an “intelligent woman but to[o] masculine in spirit.”^[1] This may be supported by a photograph in the artist’s archive of him fencing with the sitter on the lawn at Dawyck, the Balfour family home in Scotland. He had the same criticism of her daughter Jean, whom he painted twice in 1922 [3554] [3558] at Dawyck.^[2] 

The artist also painted the sitter’s husband, Frederick Balfour in 1922 [3547] and sitter’s brothers, Ronald [6469] and Montagu Norman [6464] [6465], when Governor of the Bank of England.

Gertrude Norman was born 26 October 1878, the youngest child of Frederick H. Norman (1839-1916), of Moor Place, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, and his wife Lina Collet (1851-1950). In 1904 she married Lieutenant Colonel Frederick R. S. Balfour (1873-1945). There were two children of the marriage: Alastair Norman (born 1909) and Jean Penelope (born 1907).

The sitter died in Kent 4 March 1970.

LITERATURE:

•László, Lucy de, 1931 diary, private collection

KF 2021