4055

Preparatory work 

Viscount Cecil of Chelwood 1932

Head and shoulders, three quarter profile to the left, wearing his robes as Chancellor of Birmingham University over a dark suit and tie

Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 60.4 cm (30 x 23 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1932   

Laib L18788(492) / C5(2A)  

NPG 1932 Album, p. 8

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 73: Cecil 1 June 1932

Private Collection

In 1932 de László was commissioned by a group of Lord Cecil’s friends and admirers, including Stanley Baldwin and David Lloyd George, to paint a formal portrait to present to the sitter in thanks for his efforts in promoting the League of Nations [4053]. The present picture was made in preparation for that portrait and the pose is very similar. There also exists a drawing in red chalk, made as a preliminary sketch, in the possession of one of the artist’s descendants [3292].  

For biographical details on the sitter see [4053].

EXHIBITED:  

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September 1932, no. 57 or 58 (one of these most likely to be the almost full-length of the sitter)

LITERATURE:  

•Auerbach, Erna, and Adams, C. Kingsley, Paintings and Sculpture at Hatfield House, Constable & Co. Ltd., 1971, p. 191 and ill. p. 279

KF 2015