3902

The Duchess of Teck, née Lady Margaret Evelyn Grosvenor 1906

Seated three-quarter length in semi-profile to the left, head turned and looking to the viewer, wearing a dark gown over a white blouse and a plumed hat, her hands concealed in a tippet

Oil on canvas, 96.6 x 66.1 cm (38 x 26 in.)

Inscribed lower left: P de Laszlo / 1906

Label verso: Marchioness of Cambridge / Painted in / Vienna about 1906 / Given me by the Painter

Sitters’ Book I, f. 68: Margaret of Teck   “    “  [beneath 26 Mai 1905]

Private Collection

The Duke and Duchess of Teck were both painted in Vienna in 1906, while he was serving as a military attaché [2823]. The label on the verso of the present portrait seems to indicate that it was a gift from de László to the sitter. The artist realised the importance of commissions from the British Royal family as they helped to guarantee the success of his move to London in 1907 and his first exhibition there at the Fine Art Society in May and June that year.

De László painted the Duke’s maternal uncle, the 2nd Duke of Cambridge [3051] in 1901 and his sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone in 1928 [2447] and 1932 [2238].  

Lady Margaret Evelyn Grosvenor was born at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, 30 April 1873, daughter of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster (1825-1899) and his wife Lady Constance Leveson-Gower (1834-1880). In 1894 she married Adolphus, Duke of Teck (1868-1927). There were four children of the marriage: George, Earl of Eltham (born 1895), Lady Victoria (born 1897), Lady Helena (born 1899) and Lord Frederick (born 1907). They made their home at Shotton Hall, near Shrewsbury.

She became ill with pneumonia in early 1929 and was treated by the King’s physician Lord Dawson of Penn [4651], who was also de László’s doctor at the time of his death in 1937. Lady Margaret died 27 March 1929 and was buried with her husband at the royal burial ground at Frogmore in the Home Park at Windsor.

PROVENANCE:

Bequeathed by the sitter to her son, Lord Frederick Charles Edward Cambridge;

By descent

EXHIBITED:

•Fine Art Society, London, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Portrait Paintings and Drawings by Philip A. László, May and June 1907, no. 47

•The Dowdeswell Galleries, London, An Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, June and July 1908, no. 2A

•Grafton Galleries, London, 1910, no. 72

•Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham, 1910, no. 139

LITERATURE:

•Térey, Dr. Gabriel von, “A Hungarian Portrait Painter: Philip de László,” The Studio, Vol. 40, No. 170, 1907, pp. 254-67, ill. p. 255

•“The Work of Philip A. László, The Well-Known Hungarian Painter,” Black and White, 8 June 1907, p. 783, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 95

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 19

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 39

KF 2020