5983

Vice-Admiral Sir Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baronet 1923

Half-length slightly to the right, looking towards the viewer, wearing naval uniform under a dark coat and a cap, a darkened sky behind

Oil on canvas, 80 x 59.7 cm (31 ½ x 23 ½ in.)^[1]

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1923.

Laib L17507A (289) / C14 (17A): Adm. Sir Roger Keys [sic]

Studio Inventory, p. 87: Admiral of the Fleet / Sir Roger Keyes

Collection of the Royal Marines, on loan to the Royal Marines Barracks, Stonehouse, Plymouth

According to a letter of 11 August 1938, written by the sitter to the Commandant of the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines, the present portrait was an unfinished piece that was in the possession of the artist on his death and offered to Admiral Keyes by de László's executors.

He describes the circumstances in which the portrait was painted: “The pose of the portrait was rather a tiring one and when he [de Laszlo] gave me a rest I got into an easier position. De László shouted to me not to move, rushed to the wall and tore down an unfinished full-length portrait of Esmond Harmsworth … and putting it cross ways on the easel, painted me down to the waist, across Harmsworth’s legs. He worked away for a couple of hours and practically finished the face, roughing in the cap and pose – and the dyed Lammy coat which I always wore at sea on the bridge – which he wanted to paint me in.”^[2]

Admiral Keyes’s letter goes on to explain how after he had acquired the portrait, Sydney Percy Kendrick, one of de László's authorised copyists, completed the unfinished study without altering any of de László’s work. Kendrick asked the sitter to pose for one hour in order for him to finish the portrait, which was to be presented to the Royal Marines with a note from the executors to say that it was a genuine de László.^[3] The sitter, who had been the first naval officer to become Honorary Colonel Commandant to a Royal Marines Division, presented the study to the Portsmouth Division in whose collection it remains. De László also painted a formal portrait of the sitter in 1923 [5990]; a copy of which is in the collection of the Royal Navy at Admiralty House, Portsmouth. The artist also painted the sitter’s wife twice in 1923 [5978] [5980].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5990].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Bequeathed to the sitter by the executors of de László’s will;

Presented by the sitter to the Officers of the Royal Marines, Portsmouth Division, November 1938

LITERATURE:        

•The Keyes Papers Vol. 1 1914-18, Navy Records Society, 1972, ill., frontispiece

•DLA 073-0014, letter from Lord Keyes to de László, 20 August 1923

•DLA 073-0015, letter from Lord Keyes to de László, 21 August 1923

CC 2008