4185

Lady Evelyn Cotterell, née Lady Evelyn Gordon-Lennox 1913

Standing almost full-length to the right, head turned and looking slightly left, wearing a black three-quarter sleeve gown with white frilled chiffon cuffs and neckline, a green sash, and a string of pearls, her left hand at her waist and her right holding an ostrich-feathered hat at her side

Oil on canvas, 180.4 x 99.1 cm (71 x 39 in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. de László / 1913   

Laib L6831(838) / C6(8): Lady Cotterell

NPG Album 1903-14, p. 28

NPG Album 1907-13, p. 15

Sitters’ Book I, f. 92: Evelyn Cotterell / June 3rd 1913

Private Collection

Lady Cotterell was the first member of the Cotterell family to be painted by de László, a patronage that lasted until the artist’s death in 1937. Her daughter was painted in 1924 [9975], her son [4187] and daughter-in-law [4189] in 1931 and her husband in 1934 [4183]. The sitter’s younger sister, Lady Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, was also painted by de László on a number of occasions between 1916 and 1937 [6841] [6865] [6868], and their cousin Ivy Gordon-Lennox, Duchess of Portland in 1915 [6823] [6825] [3042].

A letter from the sitter suggests that she had seen de László’s portrait of Lady Minto [6343], painted the previous year, as she wrote that she would attend her first sitting with a white dress and her dressmaker, “who can cut it about to suit our taste...the same dressmaker who made Lady Minto’s dress.”^[1] Sittings began Friday 30 May 1913. De László’s honorarium of £800 for the portrait was noted by the artist on a letter received from Lady Evelyn after it was completed and sent to her home, Garnons, Hertfordshire.^[2]   

Lady Cotterell seems to have been a difficult sitter and requested a number of changes, something the artist was extremely reluctant to do once he had completed a portrait: “I must thank you so much for being so charming in consenting to make those little alterations to please my friends & relations. My husband specially is delighted with the result and we are looking forward to hanging it…I am sorry to have been such a trouble to paint but had I been allowed to make my own design my features would have been more regular I promise you and my poor eyes both looked alike instead of wandering about on their own sweet way!”^[3]

After Lady Cotterell’s death in 1922 her sister Helen, Duchess of Northumberland asked de László if he would consider painting a posthumous portrait: “My brother-in-law Sir John Cotterell, has asked me to find out from you if you could possibly do a small painting of my dear sister from a photograph. You did such a delightful full length portrait of her some time ago. She was going to be done again some time & she wanted it to be smaller than three quarter like her portraits but she died last spring & her husband is so anxious to have it done of her from an excellent photo he has got & he was anxious that you should do it if you would as you did such an excellent & interesting portrait of her which all the family are so fond of.”^[4] De László was extremely reluctant to work from photographs and nothing came of the request. He made exceptions for close friends who had lost a son during the First World War: Prince Maurice of Battenberg [3501] for Princess Henry of Battenberg [3485]; Major Lord Charles Mercer Nairne [11578], second son of Lord [5960] and Lady Lansdowne [5969]; Lieutenant Arthur Burn [111215] for Lord Leith of Fyvie; and Robert Palmer, the second son of the Earl of Selborne [6965].

Lady Evelyn Amy Gordon-Lennox was born on 23 April 1872, the eldest daughter of the 7th Duke of Richmond (1845-1928) and his wife Amy Mary Ricardo (1847-1879). On 4 January l896 she married Captain Sir John Richard Geers Cotterell (1866-1937) and there were four children of the marriage: Sylvia (born 1897), Cicely (born 1899), Mildred (born 1903) and Richard (born 1908). She was described, as “exceedingly clever and agreeable, fond of outdoor life and a fine angler.”^[5] The sitter died at home at Garnons on 17 February 1922 and was buried in the neighbouring church at Mansel Gamage.

EXHIBITED:

•Agnew’s, London, Portraits by Philip A. László, M.V.O., June-July 1913, no. 6

LITERATURE:

•The Ladies Field, vol. LXIV, n˚832, Saturday, 21 February 1914, front cover, ill.

•DLA062-0051, letter from Lady Evelyn Cotterell to de László, undated 

•DLA062-0060, letter from Lady Evelyn Cotterell to de László, undated 

•DLA077-0137, letter from Helen, Duchess of Northumberland, to de László, 10 December 1922

MD & KF 2020