6152

Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Lord Stewart 1912

Standing full-length slightly to the left, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a page’s uniform for the Coronation of King George V in 1911, holding an earl’s coronet in both hands before him to his right, a column behind him to the left

Oil on canvas, 287 x 195.6 cm (113 x 77 in.)

Inscribed top left: László de Lombos / 1912 VI   

NPG 1903-14 Album, p. 31

Sitters’ Book I, f. 84:  Robert Stewart 22nd March 1912 

Private Collection        

In August 1902 Charles Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry carried the Great Sword of State at Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Edward VII. Two years later, John Singer Sargent accepted a commission from the Marquess and Marchioness to commemorate the event by painting Londonderry with his nephew and page of honour Wentworth Canning Beaumont [5518].^[1] The resulting portrait joined the ancestral full-length portraits which hung in the ballroom at Londonderry House, London.^[2] 

In 1911, Londonderry’s grandson was himself a page of honour to his great-uncle, the 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, premier earl of England and Ireland. The 6th Marquess of Londonderry asked de László to paint Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart in his page’s uniform in the setting of Westminster Abbey. A letter from de László to William Lockett Agnew [2560] shows the art dealer acted as his agent for this commission; their fee was £200 though the full honorarium is not known. The Marchioness of Londonderry [6128] led negotiations with Agnew and the artist suggested “she could come with the boy to my studio for a first sitting on Wednesday 28th [of June] either in the morning or afternoon?”^[3] 

This monumental portrait is the first of some sixteen de László painted of the Londonderry family and marks the beginning of their enduring patronage. It clearly echoes Sargent’s portrait and was destined to hang alongside it at Londonderry House. Oakley Williams in his 1921 volume on de László’s art notes that “the big canvas, without sacrificing its proper character as a portrait, has all the qualities of a painting designed to record the memory of an historic event. It is, as such, a memory of King George’s coronation, full of space, atmosphere, and tone. Its composition is so entirely happy as to suggest the inspiration of the moment when the painter first caught sight of his little sitter in the attraction of his untimely [sic] costume. The slight boyish figure stands out, sharply silhouetted against the dark background. Its depth and atmosphere, blue-greys shading into mysterious shadows, recall the dim storied haze of the Abbey.”^[4] De László had hoped to paint George V’s Coronation himself but was disappointed when John Henry Bacon was appointed as official artist of the event by the King.

The artist made a first preparatory sketch for the composition of this portrait at the time of the Coronation. A letter from Lord Castlereagh dated 28 June 1911 indicated that his father, the 6th Marquess, was pleased with it: “The sketch gave great satisfaction to my father so that question, the question of the pose is now settled.” He added: “There is a difficulty about Westminster Abbey for the next fortnight as the place is continually full of the crowds who wish to see where the Coronation took place.”^[5] This may have been one of the reasons why the completion of the portrait was delayed  until the following year.

The oil painting of Lord Stewart is one of the very few portraits he signed ‘László de Lombos.’ Having been ennobled in 1912 by Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, his full title thereafter was Philip Alexius László de Lombos, but he soon decided to adopt the shorter form ‘de László.’

A contemporary half-size copy of the portrait by an unknown artist is in the collection at Mount Stewart. De László also made a spontaneous drawing of the boy wearing his grandfather’s coronet during a break in the sittings [6156] which he presented to Lord and Lady Castlereagh.

Lady Castlereagh recounted a misadventure by her son during the Coronation in her autobiography: “time hung heavily on Robin’s hands. Other pages, older boys, were close at hand. they started a little horse-play, and before they could be stopped Robin kicked off his shoe, aiming it at another boy. It shot past the boy and just skimmed the ear and coronet of an aged Peeress, falling with a clatter on the Abbey floor some distance away. Her enraged spouse advanced on Robin, whose cheeks now matched the colour of his coat. The Peer was intent on administering a sound box on the ears of the culprit when Lady Londonderry bore down on both like an angry swan, swept Robin into the folds of her robe, and withered up the aged Peer with a scornful look from her proud and regal head - after which every one laughed, and Robin was bundled into the State coach and taken home.”^[6] 

Edward Charles Stewart Robert Vane-Tempest Stewart, Lord Stewart, the only son of the seventh Marquess of Londonderry [6136] and his wife the Honourable Edith Chaplin [6142], was born on 18 November 1902 in Cumberland Terrace, London. He was educated at Ludgrove, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and brought up mainly at Mount Stewart, Co. Down, at Wynard County Durham, and Londonderry House, London. He became Viscount Castlereagh in 1915 and succeeded his father as the 8th Marquess of Londonderry in 1949. He was made Honorary Colonel 12th Btn. (Cadet) Durham Light Infantry and was Honorary Attaché to the British Embassy in Rome in 1924 and 1925. Having started life as a freelance journalist he moved into politics and sat as Member of Parliament for Co. Down between 1931 and 1945. In 1931, he married Romaine, elder daughter of Major Boyce Combe of Watney Combe & Reid Brewery from Great Holt, Dockenfield, Surrey. They had three children: Jane Antonia Frances (born 1932), Annabel (born 1934), and Alexander ‘Alastair’ Charles Robert (born 1937). His interests were mostly political and, though a Tory, he had friends from all parties and frequently entertained them at home. He particularly enjoyed the company of Labour politician Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960), founder of the National Health Service.

Lady Londonderry died of cancer aged only forty-seven in 1951 and this plunged her husband into depression and alcoholism. He died of liver failure in hospital in London on 17 October 1955 aged fifty-three. Originally buried at Wynard Park, they were later re-interred in the Londonderry family vault at St Mary's Church, Long Newton, County Durham.

EXHIBITED:  
•Colnaghi & the Clarendon Gallery, Society Portraits, 1850-1939, 30 October-14 December 1985, no. 73, p. 162, ill. p. 163

LITERATURE:

•Williams, Oakley (ed.), Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 125-26

•“Court and Society,” The Daily Mail, Wednesday, 14 March 1923, p. 8                    

•Hyde, Hugh Montgomery, Londonderry House and its Pictures, London, 1937, p. 126, ill. pl. XXXVIII

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 115, fig. 69

•Letter from de László to Agnew, 25 June 1911, papers of Theresa, Marchioness of Londonderry, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D2846/2/23/45

•DLA061-0057, letter from Lord Castlereagh to de László, 28 June 1911

CC 2010

KF 2018