4810

Study portrait

Comtesse Henri de Baillet Latour, née Gräfin Elisabeth Clary-Aldringen 1912

Head and shoulders to the right, full face turned towards the viewer, wearing a rose coloured gown and pearl earrings, a deep pink bandeau in her hair

Oil on board, 68.6 x 48.3 cm (27 x 19 in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. de László / Welbeck 1912 III

Laib L5887 (782) / C29(7)

NPG 1903-1914 Album, p. 67

Private Collection

According to the memoirs of the 6th Duke of Portland [4442], this portrait was executed at his request: “[de László] then painted a portrait of Elisalex de Baillet, which I gave to her mother Princess Clary.”^[1] It was painted at his home, Welbeck Abbey, in Nottinghamshire. The Portlands were close friends of the comtesse de Baillet Latour’s parents, and she was herself a frequent guest at Welbeck. De László also made a portrait drawing of the sitter [4808] there in 1911.  

In 1924 the artist painted the sitter’s brother, Prince Alfons Clary-Aldringen [4174], and his wife in 1925 [4105].

Gräfin Elisabeth Alexandrine ‘Elisalex’ Marie Edmée Sophie Felicie Clary-Aldringen, was born in Munich on 14 December 1885, the eldest daughter of Siegfried, 6th Fürst Clary-Aldringen (1848-1929) and his wife Gräfin Therese Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau (1867-1943). On 14 July 1904, she married comte Henry de Baillet Latour (1875-1942), with whom she had a son, Guy (born 1905) and a daughter, Thérèse (‘Resy’, born 1908). For the early part of their married life, the couple lived in Brussels and in the country near Antwerp. She travelled widely, as her husband was a passionate tourist. He later became the President of the Belgian Racing Association, the Belgian Jockey Club and the International Olympic Committee.

She was a close friend of Lady Victoria Wemyss [6827], the daughter of the 6th Duke of Portland and his wife Winifred Dallas-Yorke [4411]. She recounted in the “supplementary chapter to the memoirs of the Duke of Portland” how in the winter of 1912, a few months after her portrait was painted, she nearly died: “A terrible thing I did once at Welbeck. Large party – winter of 1912 the King and Queen. Other guests Lady Salisbury, Duke [4431] / Duchess Devonshire [4409], Uncle Albert Mensdorff [4694], Laszlo, Soveral, Lord Lovat […] During the party I disgraced myself by developing virulent appendicitis, with blood poisoning and every kind of complication. Set up up-to-date operating theatre in the Jessamine rooms; between life and death for several weeks.”^[2] At the outbreak of the First World War, she moved to England with her children and the Portlands received her at Welbeck, where she stayed until 1920. She died on 3 August 1955 in Brussels.

PROVENANCE:          

Presented to the sitter’s mother by the 6th Duke of Portland;

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:          

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of, Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, pp. 221 & 325

CC 2011