112280

VERSO

Preparatory work

Baroness Leo d'Erlanger, née Edwina Louise Prue 1935

Seated full-length to the right on an upholstered French settee, wearing a day gown with a stole or wrap indicated overall, her head turned and looking to the left, her legs crossed and arms outstretched, her right arm resting on the arm of the settee

Soft pencil, heightened with white on a page torn from a sketchbook, 55.5 x 37.5 cm (21 ⅞ x 14 in.)

Inscribed top left: 51 

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 81: Edwina d’Erlanger January 21st 1935 

Private Collection

This is probably the second of the two drawings made by de László in preparation for his 1935 full-length seated portrait of Baroness Leo d’Erlanger [4609]. Less finished than the previous [4611], it would have been executed to rectify the general pose and angle of the sitter. In this drawing, de László uncovered her right shoulder, as in the sketch in oil [7501] and in the finished portrait.  

PROVENANCE:          

In the possession of the artist on his death

CC 2011