7063

William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne 1931

Standing half-length in three-quarter profile to the left, dressed in garter robes, his hands resting on a ceremonial sword

Oil on canvas, 104.8 x 73.7 cm (41 ¼ x 29 in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower right: de László 1931

NPG Album 1921-1925, f. 36

NPG Album 1931, f. 2

Sitters’ Book II, f. 66: Selborne [among signatures dated October 1930]

The Corporation of Church House, London

This is the last of the five portraits de László painted of his patron and friend the Earl of Selborne, having already portrayed him in 1911 [6965] & [7055], and in 1921 [7056] & [112103]. The present work was commissioned by the Corporation of the Church House, for which the artist had already painted a full-length portrait of Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury [4632].^[1] As Chairman of the Archbishop’s Committee on Church and State between 1913 and 1916, Selborne had been instrumental in the passing of the “Enabling Act” and the establishment of the Church Assembly, of which he was a member from 1920. He was also a Chairman of the House of Laity from 1925.

The artist’s sitters’ book and his appointment diary suggest that the portrait was started in October 1930. Sittings on 24, 27, 28 October, and 3 and 17 November were recorded by de László,^[2] but the portrait was not completed until 1931, de László being particularly busy with his presidency of the Royal Society of British Artists, and a two-month trip to Spain and Paris from the end of January until the end of March 1931. Selborne’s portrait was one of the first de László worked at on his return from the continent. It seems the picture was almost finished at that stage, and more sittings were not required. On 3 April, the artist noted in his diary: “[in the] morning painted on Lord Selborne’s pic. The Robes.”^[3] The following day, he wrote: “During the morning finished Lord Selborne’s portrait – by 12. ocl- I sent back His robes – chain, etc – his portrait will be placed at the Westminster Church House – where my large portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s [sic] is placed [4632].”^[4]

The composition of the present portrait, although half-length, is very close to that of de László’s 1911 full-length portrait of Lord Selborne. Both depict him in three-quarter profile to the left wearing garter robes, with an equally resolute gaze and firm grip on his sword. However, the format of the present work and its black background create a more intense focus on the face of the now bearded elder statesman, his expression seemingly more benign than in the earlier portrait.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6965].

EXHIBITED:

•M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June-July 1933, no. 5  

LITERATURE:          

•“New Portrait for Church House,” The New York Times, 13 November 1932

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a painter, London, 1939, p. 272

•Cannadine, David, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 2nd ed. Picador, London 1992; ill. pl. 92

•Matthew, H. C. G., and Brian Howard Harrison, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: In Association with the British Academy: From the. . ., Oxford Univ. Press, 2004, p. 552

•László, Philip de, 1930 appointment book, private collection

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

CC  2011