5804

Mrs Alanson Bigelow Houghton, née Adelaide Louise Wellington 1932

Seated three-quarter length slightly to the right and looking to the left, wearing a green evening gown and a dark cloak, drop earrings and two strings of pearls, her left hand raised holding the necklace, a pair of white gloves in her right hand resting on the arm of the chair

Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 95.3 cm (51 ½ x 37 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László / W. 1932. I.

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 71: Adelaide L. W. Houghton / Dec 21 - '31

Private Collection

De László made the fourth of his five visits to the United States in 1931 and this portrait was  painted in Washington, D.C. between December 1931 and January 1932. During this time he was also painting some of his most important American patrons: seven members of the Firestone family [110649] and Andrew William Mellon [6417] and his son Paul [6427].

The sitter’s husband, the Honourable Alanson Bigelow Houghton [5800], was painted in London in 1928 while he served as the American Ambassador to the Court of St James’s. The artist painted other members of the Houghton family in 1932: the sitter’s son, Amory Houghton [5807], daughter Eleanor [111981] and sister-in-law, Mrs Arthur Amory Houghton Sr. [5809].

On 9 December 1931, de László recorded meeting Mrs Houghton and her husband in Washington, D.C. He thought the sitter “most sympathetic” with “a very fine face – profil[e],” but “alas – very stout.”^[1] On 18 December he noted that he “had a good cloak made for her [indistinct] to cover her corpulance [sic]! … I look forward painting her.”^[2] He began the portrait 21 December with subsequent sittings 22 December, 30 December - 1 January, when he was evidently pleased with his progress: “I painted nice mrs Houghton my first sitter at the new year a pleasant beginning & painted well in her robes.”^[3]

Adelaide Louise Wellington was born 15 August 1867 in Tioga, Pennsylvania, the third child of Quincey Winthrop Wellington and his wife, Matilda Wickham of Corning, New York. She was privately educated in Corning and New York City. On 25 June 1891 she married Alanson Bigelow Houghton (1863-1941). There were five children of the marriage: Eleanor (born 1896), Amory (born 1899), Quincy (born 1901), Matilda (born 1904) and Elizabeth (born 1908). 

The sitter’s diaries covering the period of her husband’s Ambassadorship in London were privately published in 1963 as The London Years: The Diary of Adelaide Wellington Houghton, 1925-1929. After their return to Washington, D.C. they built a new home at 3003 Massachusetts Ave. and resided there and at The Knoll in Corning, New York. The sitter was very active socially and a member of numerous distinguished members’ clubs including: the Colony Club of New York; the Sulgrave Club; the Chevy Chase Club; The English Speaking Union of Washington, D.C. and the Jekyll Island Club of Brunswick, Georgia.^[4] 

Adelaide Houghton died at her summer home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, on 9 September 1945, aged 78. She was buried with her husband, who had predeceased her in 1941, at Hope Cemetery in Corning, New York.

LITERATURE:

•Houghton, Adelaide W., The London Years: The Diary of Adelaide Wellington Houghton, 1925-1929, privately printed, 1963, ill. between pp. 120 and 121

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

MD & KF 2020