3591

Mrs Augustus Brandt, née Jean Champion Garmany 1928

Half-length to the left, head turned looking full face to the viewer, wearing pearl drop earrings and a pearl necklace, a black dress and dark stole shot with gold around her shoulders, her right hand visible

Oil on canvas, 86.5 x 67.5 cm (34 x 26 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1928. I.  

Laib L14946 (410) / C3 (5A)  

NPG 1927-28 Album, p. 20

Sitters’ Book II, f. 57: Jean G. Brandt  Jan, 25th/28.

Private Collection

This portrait was the last one de László completed of the Brandt family, having already painted Jean Brandt’s two daughters, Gwen [6371] and Jean [3600], her husband Augustus [3585], in 1925, 1926 and 1927 respectively. His first conception for the present portrait was rejected and later destroyed [3597]. The pictures were hung together with the ancestral portraits in the dining room in the family home, Castle Hill, in Bletchingley, Surrey. The artist’s correspondence with the Brandts shows that the execution of the portrait was postponed a number of times because of de László’s busy schedule, despite Augustus Brandt’s polite but frequent reminders. When a date for the first sitting was eventually set, on 10 January 1928, the sitter wrote to de László that it was unfortunate she was so tired at the moment, but added nonetheless, “we shall meet, & begin our long delayed promise to Mr Brandt & I am sure you can conquer all disadvantages so great is my belief in your magic genius.”^[1]. The artist’s first attempt at painting her, in three-quarter profile to the left, was unsuccessful and set aside, unfinished,^[2] but the sitter’s husband was very pleased with the present one: “I know Mrs Brandt is a difficult subject to paint and that you have made a great success of it.”^[3] De László’s fee for the portrait was £525.^[4] 

Jean ‘Janie’ Champion Garmany was born on 26 August 1867 to a prominent American family in Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of George Washington Garmany (1856-1888), a dealer in cotton, and his wife Jane Champion. She was the only surviving daughter of the couple, but she had four brothers, two of whom became successful lawyers in New York, whilst another, Jasper, became a society doctor there, with patients such as Andrew Carnegie and the Frick family. She grew up to become a spirited, independent young woman, despite her conservative education at Mrs Cary’s girls’ school in Baltimore. Her beauty and flamboyant red hair attracted many admirers. On 22 August 1887, she secretly married Heyward Hall McAllister, the youngest son of Ward McAllister, founder and leader of “The Four Hundred”. When their union was discovered in 1892, her father-in-law publicly denounced the match arguing that his son could not support her, and had no prospect of employment. In reality Ward McAllister had hoped that Heyward would marry someone with considerable wealth to alleviate his own financial troubles. The marriage was never consummated, and the young couple divorced in 1892.

Jean Garmany’s mother took her to Europe and North Africa to avoid the press publicity and the weight of the scandal. While walking in Egypt, Jean met and fell in love with a young banker, Augustus Brandt (1871-1952). Hearing the news that he had proposed to her, his family were alarmed, and sent out Augustus’s youngest brother Rudi to appraise her. The latter sent a telegram home with the following report:  “If Gussie doesn’t marry her, I will.” Augustus and Jean Brandt were married in May 1898. He was a partner in the family firm, dealing primarily with the American business of the bank. They had two daughters, Jean (born 1900) and Gwendolen ‘Gwen’ (born 1904), and they settled in the family home, Castle Hill, Bletchingley, in Surrey. There, they welcomed and supported for a time their nephew, Bill Brandt, whose fame as a photographer came later. He recorded daily life and the many social gatherings at Castle Hill, where Jean Brandt lavishly entertained family and friends from America, Germany and Russia. She was remembered by one of her descendants as a character larger than life and a “benevolent tyrant with a huge open purse” (her husband’s). She died 15 March 1950.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Offered at auction at Christie’s King Street, 15 December 2011

LITERATURE:

•McCleave, David John, Bletchingley and the Grange: A Pictorial and Social History, Shakespeare Editorial, 2023, p. 32, ill.

•DLA057-0014, letter from Jean Brandt to de László, 31 December 1927

•DLA057-0024, letter from Augustus Brandt to de László, 13 February 1928

CC 2012