4423

Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, née Winifred Dallas-Yorke 1925

Head and shoulders, in semi-profile to the right, wearing Court dress and the Portland tiara with a grey-black chiffon veil and a double-rope pearl necklace

Oil on board, 101.6 x 76.2 cm (40 x 30 in.)

Inscribed, lower right: de László / 1925

Laib L11736 (672) / C22 (9)

NPG 1919-25 Album, f. 20

Sitters’ Book, II, f. 45: Winifred Portland Welbeck ^[1]

Private Collection

De László had painted or drawn the Duchess of Portland five times between the end of 1911 and September 1912, but it seems he did not paint her again before executing the present portrait in the summer of 1925. In her first formal portrait by de László [4411], she held the ‘pear pearl’ necklace which had belonged to Queen Mary II. In the present work, the artist has depicted her wearing the Portland tiara, created by Cartier in 1902 for the Duchess to wear at the coronation of Edward VII that year.

“She was chosen as one of the four duchesses who were to be canopy bearers at the anointing of Queen Alexandra on 9th August that year. It was probably for this occasion that the new tiara had been made up as a frame for the ancient diamonds from the Portland collection. They are free hanging and tremble at the slightest movement of the wearer.” ^[2] 

In his memoirs, the Duke of Portland described the circumstances under which the present portrait was painted. Although he was “extremely anxious” that de László should paint his wife in the dress she wore at the anointing of Queen Alexandra, “for some time, she found herself unable to give him the necessary sittings.” However, in 1925, the Portlands received the Queen of the Belgians at Welbeck, and as she expressed the wish to be painted by de László, they invited him so that he could make her portrait [7870]. The Duke related: “on the first evening after his arrival, I begged my wife to appear in the costume and headdress in which she had attended the Court. She did so, and the moment de László saw her he rushed forward exclaiming, ‘Ah! Madame la Duchesse, I must paint you! I must paint you like that! Sit down at once!” But as we were about to go in to dinner, he had to subdue his ardour for the time being. He painted a picture of the Queen; and then, in as few as five or six sittings, he finished the portrait of my wife, which I think is not only the most lifelike and pleasing portrait I have ever seen of her, but perhaps one of the best of all his pictures.”^[3]

Although the Duke very much liked the portrait, he later had an embarrassing misadventure with the Portland tiara itself: “While my wife was dressing for dinner, I went into her room and threw myself into an arm chair.  Both she and her maid gave a scream – and so did I, for I had sat down on the very sharp points of her diamond tiara.  Naturally, the tiara was broken to bits, while the lower part of my poor person resembled the diamond mines of Golconda, so full was it of precious stones!”^[4] 

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4411].

EXHIBITION:

•The French Gallery, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1927, no. 9  

LITERATURE:          

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 359, 364

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck, sixth Duke, Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, p. 221-2 and ill. between pp. 224 & 225

•Geoffrey C. Munn, Tiaras. A History of Splendour, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2001, p. 109, ill. pl. 84, p. 382

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 10, ill.

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance,

Blackmore, 2024, pp. 24, 31, ill. p. 24

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 112

•DLA 1916 parcel, Moderne Welt, no. 16, ill.

•DLA162-0287, Pesti Hírlap, 18 August 1925, p. 7

CC 2008