111407

UNFINISHED

Henry, Percy and Miles Illingworth 1917

Percy on the left and Henry on the right, in white open-necked shirts, Miles in a yellow shirt with a white frilled neck and cuff.

Oil on canvas, circular, 86 cm in diameter (34 in.)

Sitters’ Book II, f. 11: [in the artist’s hand: 1917. Sept. 14.] Henry Illingworth. / Percy and Miles Illingworth

Studio Inventory, p. 98 (541): The three sons of H. Illingworth Esq. Acquired from the Trustees after the death of the artist. Re-stretched 1938

Private Collection

The three sons of Percy Holden Illingworth began sitting for this portrait on 14 September 1917 and signed de László’s Sitters’ Book. Thetis Wilson [2014] signed after them on 20 September and the artist himself added: Next day I was arrested and interned P.A. de L. The artist had come under suspicion for his correspondence with his family in Budapest and attempts to send them money through the Dutch Diplomatic bag. This was illegal under the Defence of the Realm Act and he spent the next two years detained until his exoneration in June 1919 after a trial by the Naturalisation Revocation Committee. By this time the boys had changed so much that the portrait was abandoned and remained in de László’s studio until his death. It was acquired by Henry, the eldest sitter, from the artist’s executors, his father having died of typhoid two years before.

A letter in the artist’s archive indicates that de László gave directions for the preferred style of dress for his sitters. Their mother, May Illingworth, wrote to the artist in July 1917: “I am posting a little tunic of Baby’s, to see if you like it, they are just the ordinary suits he wears every day but the colour is rather nice and it could of course be made more open at the throat - I have also written for patterns of yellow silk, to make a suit in the Romney style, as you suggested, but before ordering the silk one, I thought I would let you see the Linen tunic, in case you thought it would go better, with the other two boys flannel tennis shirts”^[1] De László favoured 18th century style dress for his portraits of children and similar ‘Romney’ suits can be seen on a portrait of his son Stephen painted in 1910 [8215] and more directly in his portrait of The Honourable Hugh Waldorf Astor of 1925 [2606]. He used the composition of the Illingworth boys again in a portrait of the children of the 6th Earl of Rosse in 1920 [4685].

May Illingworth’s letter also indicates that she and the artist discussed having a frame in de László’s collection copied by Emile Remy, who was based in London and was one of his primary sources for frames.^[2] The frame of the present picture is very plain when compared to the two circular portraits known to have been in de László’s collection in 1917. These are of his son Henry as Bacchus [11619] and Princess Agathe von Ratibor und Corvey [11100]. It is more probable that the picture was framed after it was acquired from the artist’s estate.

De László also painted the boys’ mother, Mrs Percy Illingworth [5713] between late 1916 and early 1917 and their aunt Lady Illingworth, née Margaret Wilberforce in 1933 [5717] and 1934 [6968].

Henry George Coats Illingworth was born on 5 January 1908 in Scotland, the son of Percy Holden Illingworth (1859-1915) of Westwood, Clayton Heights, Bradford, and his wife May Mackenzie Coats (1883-1933), daughter of George Coats of Staneley, Paisley. He was born at the home of his maternal grandparents. Educated at Winchester and Trinity College Cambridge, he joined the Grenadier Guards in September 1939 and was awarded Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II with Palm and Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm. After the war he worked as a stockbroker in the City of London. In July 1933 he married Dawn Gold, daughter of Sir Harcourt Gilbey Gold and his wife Helen Maclagan. There were three children of the marriage. He married Elspeth Bailey in 1964 after the death of his first wife and they lived in Morayshire in Scotland after his retirement. Henry died in Scotland in 1993.

Percy Guy Illingworth was born on 15 March 1910 in London. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. On 26 January 1933 he married Margaret Dixson at St Margaret’s, Westminster. There were two children of the marriage, a son and a daughter, and the family lived in Windlesham and Sunningdale in Berkshire. After the Second World War he became a barrister but retired young to care for his wife who had become ill. He died on 7 August 1995.

Miles Holden Illingworth, was born on 23 February 1913.  He attended Eton College and  Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read Engineering. In the Second World War, he served with distinction in the Royal Artillery as a Senior Gunnery Instructor and attained the rank of Major.  After the war he became a Stock Jobber in the City of London. In 1948 he married Princess Jane Magaloff, née Falke. There were two sons of the marriage. He retired from his job in the City of London to farm in Essex, where he died in 1988.  

PROVENANCE:

In the artist’s studio on his death;

Acquired by Henry Illingworth, sitter, from the executors of the artist’s estate

LITERATURE:

Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 159 ill. 88

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 113

•DLA045-0026, letter from May Illingworth to de László, 30 July 1917  

KF 2022