5928

Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark 1934

Seated half-length to the left, wearing fur trimmed white cape over a blue-grey gown, which is just indicated, her pearl and diamond earrings clearly visible and her left hand showing off her sapphire engagement ring, holding the cape and three cream roses at her breast

Oil on canvas, 100.3 x 75 cm (39 ½ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1934   

NPG 1934 Album p. 36 where labelled: HRH the Duchess of Kent 

Sitters’ Book II, f. 79: Marina / Princess of Greece / and Denmark / Sept. 26 - 1934

Private Collection        

This portrait is one of a pair of Princess Marina and her fiancé The Duke of Kent [5931], commissioned by the parents of the sitter, Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece, which were intended to be wedding presents to the young couple. They were only commissioned towards the end of September 1934 and with the wedding due to take place in November, de László had little time to complete the work.  

He was granted eight hours to paint the present portrait and the press at the time made anxious and regular reports on the sittings, especially as Princess Marina had to leave London for Paris on 30 September. Sittings took place daily from 26 September, and it seems de László had time to just about complete the painting. Princess Marina was anxious that her sapphire ring, together with the diamond and pearl earrings the Duke of Kent had presented her with on their engagement, should be clearly depicted in her painting. Both portraits and their subjects were much photographed and acclaimed in the popular press at the time.  

Lucy de László described one of the sittings in her diary: “I came to town by an early train especially to meet Princess Marina & her mother...She “Marina” is interesting, tall, as well as beautiful. She disappeared into the d-room, & meanwhile I sat beside Pss. Nicolas on sofa. I felt stiff, & she tried to put me at ease - - The young P-ss= came in looking beautiful in white satin.  Portrait already well on – Fair golden hair, light brown eyes, well cut face, & wearing the saphire engagement ring, & new pearl earings! Later I saw people collecting outside studio, mounted p’man, inspector of Police going about on the road - - It seems that other days there were great crowds, special Policemen had to be called to keep order - - photographers on ladders!”^[1]

It was at the request of the Duke of Kent that the pair of portraits were exhibited at Knoedler’s Galleries at the time of their wedding, together with other de László portraits of Princess Marina’s relations, the Greek Royal family. Specially mounted and signed colour prints of the portraits of the Duke and Duchess were on sale to the public for the benefit of St George’s Hospital.

Princess Marina of Greece was born in Athens on 13 December 1906, the youngest of three daughters^[2] of Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece [7827] & [11628]. She spent her childhood in Athens and the Tatoï Palace at the foot of Mount Parnitha. After several periods of exile, the family went to Paris and settled there. Marina’s formal education was conducted at first by an English governess, Kate Fox, and later at Princess Meshchersky’s finishing school in Paris.

On 29 November 1934 she married Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902-1942), son of King George V (1865-1936) and Queen Mary (1867-1953). There were three children of the marriage: Prince Edward (born 1935), Princess Alexandra (born 1936), and Prince Michael (born 1942). The family lived at Coppins, near Iver, in Buckinghamshire, which Princess Victoria had bequeathed to the Duke of Kent, her nephew, and at 3, Belgrave Square, where the couple entertained a wide circle of artists, authors and actors, as well as those associated with the many charitable organisations in which they took a close interest.

On 25 August 1942 the Duke was killed when his aircraft crashed on a remote hillside in Scotland after taking off from Invergordon, bound for Reykjavik. Because of a bureaucratic mistake, the Duke’s annual civil list allowance of £25,000 did not pass on to his widow, and despite his sympathy, Winston Churchill did not alter this while England was at war. King George VI, Queen Mary, and later Queen Elizabeth II helped her financially, but in 1947, she had to sell many of her possessions at auction. Taking over her husband’s role as patron and president of many institutions, the Duchess continued to carry out a full programme of engagements, and devoted herself to causes such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the newly established University of Kent and the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. She was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal West Kent Regiment.

As a young woman, Princess Marina developed a fine taste in clothes, many of which, supported by her mother, she made herself. One of the best dressed women of her time, she greatly influenced the style and appearance not only of other members of the Royal family, but also of the British public. Her choice of British fabrics, especially cotton, did much to revive home industries. Her style inspired couturiers, including Edward Molyneux, who made her trousseau.^[3] Princess Marina was herself an artist of considerable accomplishment and exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. She enjoyed sharing her love of painting with de László and he made two informal study portraits of her, one of which [5954] he presented to her as a personal present for her wedding. The other, painted in Paris in October that year [5957] for his own pleasure, he kept it in his own collection until his death.

Princess Marina died at Kensington Palace on 27 August 1968 after a short illness, and was buried next to her husband at Frogmore.

PROVENANCE:          

Given by the sitter’s parents to the Duke of Kent as a wedding present

EXHIBITED:          

•M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., London, Royal Portraits by Philip A. de  László, M.V.O., Loan Exhibition In aid of The Wedding Gift Fund for St. George’s Hospital (at the special request of H.R.H. The Duke of Kent), November-December 1934, no. 7

LITERATURE:        

•The Birmingham Mail, 27 September 1934

•The Daily Mail Paris, 29 September 1934

•The Daily Telegraph, 3 October 1934, p. 15, ill.

•The Sketch, 10 October 1934, p. 69, ill.

•Weekly Illustrated Presentation Supplement,^[4] 13 October 1934, p. 2

•Hampstead and St John’s Wood Advertiser, 18 October 1934, pp. 3-4

•Illustrated London News, 20 October 1934, p. 619, ill.

•The Sphere, vol. CXXXIX, nº 1813, London, 20 October 1934, p. 89.

•The Queen, Wednesday 24 October 1934, Front cover, p. 4, ill.

•Képes Pesti Hírlap, vol. LVI, issue 243, 14 November 1934, ill.

•The New York Times, Sunday 25 November 1934, ill.

•European Herald, vol. III, nº 57, London, Friday 30 November 1934, p. 4, ill.

•Supplement to The Illustrated London News, Royal Wedding Number, 1 December 1934

•The Bystander, vol. CXXIV, nº 1616, 4 December 1934, ill.

•The Sphere, 8 December 1934, p. 394, ill.

•L’Illustration, nº 4788, 8 December 1934, p. 505, ill.

•The Tatler, nº 1746, 12 December 1934, p. xx, ill.

•The Sunday Chronicle, October 13 1935, p. 2

•Ellison, Grace, The Authorised Life Story of Princess Marina, London, 1934, p. 150, pp. 129 & 136, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 374

•A Political History of Contemporary Greece, Volume IV 1932-1936, by Styros Markezinis, Athens, 1978

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 253-254, ill. 130

•László, Lucy de, 1933 diary, private collection, 29 September entry, p. 272

•DLA162-0100, Pesti Hírlap, 6 October 1934, p. 12

•DLA162-0460, Pesti Hírlap, 27 November 1934, p. 8

•DLA162-0013, “Beszélgetés László Fülöppel időszerű művészeti és jótékonysági kérdésekről” [Conversation with Philip de László about Current Artistic and Charitable Issues], Pesti Hírlap, 1 January 1935, p. 7        

•DLA135-0033, letter from de László to Marczell ‘Marczi’ László, 22 September 1934

•DLA135-0035, letter from de László to Marczell ‘Marczi’ László, 1 October 1934

CC 2008