5187

Preparatory work

The Honourable Andrew Elphinstone 1925

Standing full-length looking to the left, wearing an open necked cream shirt and a Royal Stuart tartan kilt, holding a bow or staff in his right hand, a blue sky and landscape beyond

Oil on canvas, 102.9 x 83.2 cm (40 ½ x 32 ¾ in.)

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 45: Andrew Elphinstone [in the artist’s hand: 2 July 1925]

Studio Inventory, p. 3 (18): The Hon. Andrew Elphinstone. A study for the large picture in the possession of the Lord Elphinstone at Carberry Tower, Mid Lothian

Private Collection

This picture is the preparatory sketch for the formal portrait of the sitter [5184] and remained in the artist’s studio at the time of his death. De László also painted the sitter’s parents in 1929 [5180] & [5182] and the formal portrait of the sitter’s father hangs in The Head Office of The Bank of Scotland, on The Mound, in Edinburgh [5133].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent;

Sold Christie’s South Kensington, 12 July 2012, lot 327

KF 2012