5428

Elizabeth Maude Guinness 1910

Seated half-length to the left, looking to the right, wearing a black jacket and wide brimmed hat, both with highlights of vivid blue, a white high-necked blouse with a gold and lapis necklace, her right hand holding her lorgnettes, her left, wearing a black glove, in her lap

Oil on canvas, 112.4 x 76.2 cm (44 ¼ x 30 in.)

Inscribed top left: P.A. László / 1910

Sitters’ Book I, f. 55: Elizabeth M. Guinness / April 18. 1909

Royal Holloway, University of London

Lucy de László notes in her diary that ‘Ellie’ Guinness came to stay with them while the portrait was painted and that she paid an honorarium of £100, much less than the £700 he usually charged.^[1] 

De László has painted her as a smart and stylish dresser, reflecting the charm of manner and fineness of mind that were long remembered at Royal Holloway. “When she met students”, wrote one, “she became the leader of a salon, a touchstone for taste.”

Elizabeth Maude Guinness, born in 1869, was a second cousin to the artist’s wife. She was among the earliest students of Royal Holloway College and immediately after gaining Honours in English in 1892 she joined the academic staff there, becoming Librarian, Tutor and Lecturer in English. From 1899 until 1908 she was Vice-Principal of the College under Miss (later Dame) Emily Penrose, whom de László painted in 1907 [6594]. With Miss Penrose’s departure for Oxford, Miss Guinness left to be Vice-Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She died in 1960.

PROVENANCE:        

Presented to The Royal Holloway College by its past and present members, 1911

EXHIBITED:          

•Royal Society of British Artists, Spring Exhibition, 1911, no. 99

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 45

LITERATURE:        

•“László Fülöp Elek” in Művészet, vol. 14, no. 5, 1912, p. 176 

•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat (Hungarian Fine Art Society), Művészet, vol. XI, issue 5, Budapest, Singer és Wolfner, 1912, ill.

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed. & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, pp. 110-11, ill. p. 110

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 201

•László, Lucy de, 1910 diary, private collection, 7 November entry, p. 90

CWS 2008