10029

Mrs John Bentley Squier, née Leah Ursula Bradt 1927

Seated three-quarter length with her hands in her lap, wearing a coat with a wide fur-trimmed collar and cuffs over her dress and a broad-brimmed black hat with a red feather trim

Oil on canvas, 71 x 99 cm (28 x 39 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1927 / LONDON

Laib L14999(782) / C25(9): Mrs. Squiere [sic]

NPG Album 1927-28, p. 6

Sitters’ Book II, f. 55: Leah Ursula Squier 

Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee

The present painting was commissioned by Adolph Ochs [6487] as part of a pair, the pendant of which was the portrait of the sitter’s husband, Dr John Bentley Squier [111052]. The latter was Ochs’ urologist, and the commissioning of those portraits may have been the result of Ochs’ gratitude for Squier’s medical services.

A letter dated 16 July 1927^[1] reveals that de László had already met Mr and Mrs Squier when they visited him in his New York studio, perhaps the previous year, while he was working on Adolph Ochs’s portrait. However, it was on the ‘old continent’ that he painted them in 1927. De László proposed to paint the pair either “during the last days in August”, or after 22 September, “in [his] Paris studio, if more convenient”.^[2] The inscriptions on the portraits imply that the couple chose the first option and that the artist painted them on his return from Scotland (on 23 or 24 August) and prior to his departure for France on 2 September.^[3] De László went on to explain: “If you wish me to paint these portraits the same size as your picture^[4] - I would require eight days in continuation, to do them, and could paint the lady in the morning and the Doctor vice versa – but I must have, at least, eight days!” In the same letter, de László explained that he would be happy to paint the pair for 4,000 $ each.

On 28 October, Adolph Ochs wrote to de László to settle this account, and to thank him for the pair of portraits: “I never have paid for anything with more pleasure. The portraits are very satisfactory, and are a treasure for the Squiers, their family and their friends. They do you great credit. In the portrait of Mrs. Squier you have certainly achieved an artistic triumph. You have portrayed her features perfectly and illumined them with her charming personality.”^[5]

The sitter herself was very pleased with her portrait: “Our friends are delighted with [the portraits] and all admire the hat. You would be greatly pleased, I am sure, could you but hear the praise given the artist. It is music to our ears, and we (Doctor and I) are happier than ever, for we are so proud to own the work of such a great master.”^[6] Her emphasis on the success of the hat suggests that it was de László’s idea that she should be painted in it, and that it was one of the studio hats he was regularly using, especially until the 1920s.

Leah Ursula Bradt was was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 31 October 1875, the daughter of Morris Bradt and his wife Julia Felleman. Around 1896 she moved to New York, following her brother, Gay, who moved from his position with the Chattanooga Times to The New York Times after his associate Adolph Ochs purchased the latter in 1896. She married Dr. J. Bentley Squier (1873-1948) on 21 August 1902. A young physician at the time, he later rose to prominence as a urological surgeon. They had a son, J. Bentley Squier, Jr. (born 1903) and a daughter, Ursula [111534] (born 1906). Mrs. Squier was involved in various charities, particularly on behalf of the blind, and the family enjoyed travelling, spending holidays at White Sulphur Springs in the 1920s and 1930s. She died on 9 August 1956, aged eighty.^[7]

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Bequeathed to the Hunter Museum of American Art by J. Squier Reimer (Accession No. 1976.16.b)

LITERATURE:

•Correspondence between de László an Adolph Ochs, in the possession of a descendant of Mr. Ochs

•DLA040-0020, letter from Mrs Squier to de László, 28 October 1927

CC 2008