13702

David Arthur Salvin Bowlby 1915 

Head and shoulders to the left, head turned in three-quarter profile and looking to the left, wearing a blue jacket with a white shirt and blue tie

Oil on canvas, 31.8 x 39.4 cm (12 ½ x 15 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: P.A. de László / A souvenir of … at Knoydart. / 1915 October 5

Private Collection

This portrait was painted in October 1915 during de László’s visit to Knoydart, the Bowlby family’s home in Invernesshire. He greatly enjoyed painting the landscape there and made a number of studies on this visit [4307][3625][112672][3630].

A letter from the sitter’s mother Catherine Bowlby in December reveals that the present portrait was hung at Gilston Park, the family estate in Essex, where it joined her own [2880][2882] and that of her husband Arthur Salvin Bowlby in hunting dress [2885]: “The picture is in the frame & looks — well, just what one expects it to look like - we are having great discussions where to hang it  … Many grateful thanks from us both for all the trouble you have taken over David’s picture.”^[1]

The sitter’s sister Ursula was painted in 1923 [13703].

David Arthur Salvin Bowlby was born on 1 March 1907, the second son of Arthur Salvin Bowlby of Gilston Park, Essex and his mother Catherine Mary Bond. He was educated at Eton and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1928. On 1 March 1949 he married the Honourable Penelope Portman (1913-1987), daughter of 7th Viscount Portman of Bryanston, as her second husband. There were no children of the marriage. He was employed at Lloyds of London Insurance Corporation.

David Bowlby died on 4 June 1985 and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard in Gilston, Essex where his sister was also later buried.

LITERATURE:

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 125

•DLA054-0024, letter from Catherine Bowlby to de László, 4 December 1915

KF 2022