3739

DESTROYED

Lady Buchanan-Jardine, née Jean Barbara Hamilton 1928

Standing three-quarter length in three-quarter profile to the left, head turned and looking full face to the viewer, holding a bunch of flowers in the crook of her left arm, and the leash of the greyhound beside her in her right hand, a stormy sky behind

Oil on canvas

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1928

Laib L19467(606) / C4(15A)        

NPG 1927-29 Album, p. 11

Sitters’ Book II, f. 55: Jean Buchanan Jardine July 18th / 1927

Lady Buchanan-Jardine’s husband first wrote to the artist in June 1927: “I am very anxious to have my wife’s portrait painted and as I much admire various portraits by you that I have seen in various places, I wondered whether you could undertake it.”^[1]

Contemporary correspondence indicates that, as with many of his sitters, de László was intimately involved in the selection of the sitter’s dress for this portrait. The artist wrote to the sitter in February 1928, enclosing a reproduction of a work by Botticelli, whose colour scheme had inspired him, along with a drawing of his own concept for the portrait : “I…would prefer the blue which I think would suit you very well – very pale, nattier blue chiffon – not exactly but as it is here on the picture, but as you will see it on my drawing. The dress is really in one with a girdle, which will help to show your figure, and the sleeves, as you see, not closed as on the picture, but open as you see it on my drawing – open sleeves. I think if you get the right green-blue and a little silver for the girdle, it would look very attractive, and we could put some kind of silver decoration on your hair, something similar to what you see on the picture. May I ask you to let me have various patterns of pale bluish chiffon that I could choose from and you could have the dress made. It is really very simple and I hope it will appeal to you. Let me know what you think about it. I am sure you will look better in it than the yellowish colour which would be too much similar to your hair, and, as I mentioned to you when you visited me, the branch of white flowers would go very well with the bluish tone and with your fair hair.”^[2]

The sitter liked the artist’s proposal, and subsequently sent the artist a sketch by the dressmakers Simmonds. The artist reviewed the sketch and sent the drawing back to the sitter: “showing the alterations which he would like made. He likes the ribbon under the bust, which ought to be of antique silver, but he does not care for the fullness of the waist – the blue chiffon overdress ought to be cut in one and be shorter when finished, as he has indicated in the drawing. The underskirt he would like to be in ivory chiffon – both materials to be equally transparent, and to be kept quite simple so as to show the perfect figure of Lady Buchanan-Jardine.”^[3]

Sittings for the portrait began in June 1928, with the artist writing to the sitter shortly after that they would need a further six to seven sittings at least.^[4] A letter from the Lady Buchanan-Jardine’s private secretary, Violet Holtham, records that: “Lady Jardine originally arranged to have a half length portrait but at the second sitting, Mr. Laszlo took out what he had done and placed the head very much higher on the canvas in order, he said, to paint in Lady Jardine’s figure.”^[5] As the sittings progressed, the artist decided to add one of the sitter’s dogs to the portrait and her first suggestion was her brindle bull terrier, which could be sent down from her home in Scotland. She soon changed her mind and suggested an Irish wolfhound: “but he is far too big to take to London, and could not be got into a car. Lady Jardine wondered whether it would be possible for you to bring the picture here, and finish it, and the dog would be here, and he could perhaps be put in the picture instead of Tiger…Sir John does not like the idea at all of having Tiger in the picture.”^[6] It is not known whose dog was finally used for the portrait, or whether the sitter owned a greyhound.

The busy schedules of both the artist and the sitter, and the illness of the sitter for some time, meant that sittings were scheduled and rescheduled over a number of months. The portrait was finally completed in January 1929 and photographed by Paul Laib^[7], before being sent, with the sitter’s dress, to her London home.^[8]

Lady Buchanan-Jardine’s son later recalled visiting the artist’s studio with his mother when he was a small boy, in order to see this portrait in its final stages. He remembered the artist wearing a white smock and consulting his mother about the portrait. It was a huge success and much admired, being a very good likeness of the sitter. It had pride of place over the fireplace in the drawing room at 24 St. James’s Place, the family home in London. The house was bombed during the Blitz in the Second World War, and the portrait was destroyed.

De László also painted the sitter's sister-in-law, Mrs. John Drummond, née Violet Buchanan-Jardine, in 1935 [4921]. That portrait was destroyed in a fire at Megginch Castle in 1969, though two copies were later made from a photograph of the original [4924] [4926].  

Jean Barbara Hamilton was born in London 6 September 1898, the younger daughter of Lord Ernest Hamilton, son of the 1st Duke of Abercorn, and of his wife Pamela, née Campbell. She married on 8 June 1921, Sir John William Buchanan-Jardine, son of Sir Robert William Buchanan-Jardine, 2nd Bt., and Ethel Mary Piercy. They had one son, Andrew Rupert John (born 1923). Sir John succeeded his father as 3rd Baronet in 1927. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1944.

A contemporary ad for Pond’s cold cream which featured a photo of Lady Buchanan-Jardine described her thus: “Brilliant, bewitching, beautiful, Lady Buchanan-Jardine leads the gay whirl of young English society. At balls and dances at exlcusive night clubs…famous race meetings...hunting and house prties...everywhere her blonde beauty reigns triumphant. She is of the fairest English type, with eyes of delphinium blue and hair of gleaming gold.”

The sitter was a keen gardener and rider to hounds. The family had a house near Newmarket and she was a racing enthusiast, owning a number of racehorses. As an early patron of Sir Alfred Munnings, she commissioned him to paint her horse ‘Nothing Venture.’ She brought up her son largely at Castle Milk, the family home in Scotland. She died at Dixons, her son’s home on the estate, in 1990.

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., May-June, 1929, no.12

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O. September. 1932, no.19

•Hotel Jean Charpentier, Paris, Exposition P. A. de László, June 1931, no.31

LITERATURE:

•The Sketch, 22 May 1929, p. 413, ill.

•The Times, 23 May 1929

•“A ‘Diana’ of the North Portrayed by De Laszlo,” The Illustrated London News, 25 May 1929, p.909, ill.

•Bailey, Suzanne, “De László’s Relationships with his Patrons and Sitters,” in de Laszlo, Sandra de, ed., A Brush With Grandeur, Paul Holberton, London, 2004, p. 54

•DLA058-0082, letter from Sir John Buchanan-Jardine to de László, undated [assumed June 1927]

•DLA058-0119, letter from de László’s secretary to Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, 29 June 1927

•DLA058-0085, letter from Sir John Buchanan-Jardine to de László, undated [assumed 1927]

•DLA058-0084, letter from Violet Holtham (Private Secretary to Lady Buchanan-Jardine) to de László, 14 November 1927

•DLA058-0094, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, undated

•DLA058-0093, letter from de László’s secretary to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, 9 February 1928

•DLA058-0092, letter from de László to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, 20 February 1928

•DLA058-0086, letter from Lady Buchanan-Jardine to de László, undated [some time between 20 February and 14 May 1928]

•DLA058-0090, letter from de László to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, 14 May 1928

•DLA058-0087, letter from Lady Buchanan-Jardine to de László, undated [May 1928]

•DLA058-0089, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, 11 June 1928

•DLA058-0088, letter from de László to Violet Holtham, 14 June 1928

•DLA058-0118, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 15 June 1928

•DLA058-0117, letter from Violet Holtham to de László’s secretary, 16 June 1928

•DLA058-0116, letter from de László to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, 2 July 1928

•DLA058-0115, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, 3 July 1928

•DLA058-0114, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 6 July 1928

•DLA058-0083, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, 22 August 1928

•DLA058-0112, letter from Lady Buchanan-Jardine to de László, 4 October 1928

•DLA058-0111, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 22 October 1928

•DLA058-0110, letter from Violet Holtham to de László’s secretary (Miss Wingrave), 25 October 1928

•DLA058-0109, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, 3 November 1928

•DLA058-0108, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 5 November 1928

•DLA058-0107, letter from Violet Holtham to de László, 11 November 1928

•DLA058-0104, letter from de László’s secretary to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, 2 January 1929

•DLA058-0102, letter from Violet Holtham to de László’s secretary, 28 January 1929

•DLA058-0101, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 30 January 1929

•DLA058-0100, letter from Violet Holtham to de László’s secretary, 7 February 1929, and letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 9 February 1929

•DLA058-0099, letter from de László to Lady Buchanan-Jardine, undated [February 1929]

•DLA114-0131 to 114-0135, correspondence between de László’s secretary and Violet Holtham, regarding the exhibition of this portrait at the French Gallery, 4 April to 21 May 1929

•DLA114-0134, letter from de László’s secretary to Violet Holtham, 5 April 1929

•DLA058-0098, letter from the Editorial Department, The Illustrated London News, to de László, 15 April 1929

•DLA058-0096, letter from de László’s secretary to the Editorial Department, The Illustrated London News, 15 April 1929

•DLA058-0097, letter from de László’s secretary to the Editor, the Illustrated London News, 16 May 1929

•DLA101-0055, press cutting, “Famous Painter Talks About lovely Women,” the Evening Standard, 7 September 1929

•DLA101-0045, press cutting, “Mr. P. de Laszlo on Present Fashions,” Hampstead Advertiser, 12 September 1929

•DLA115-0008 to 115-0010, correspondence between de László and Lady Buchanan-Jardine/Violet Holtham, regarding the exhibition of this portrait at the Hotel Jean Charpentier in June 1931, 7 May to 30 June 1931

•DLA 1931 parcel, Nord-Sud, 1931, p.20, ill.

MD 2014