3061

Study portrait

George Francis Howard Guinness 1922

Half-length, full face to the viewer, wearing a white shirt, blue jacket and blue tie

Oil on board, 78.8 x 49.6 cm (31 x 19 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1922 Aug.

Laib L10981(433) / C11(17)  

NPG Album 1921-23, p. 28

Private Collection

De László painted a number of portraits of the family of his wife’s nephew Sam Guinness. Alfhild Holter was painted to celebrate her marriage to Sam in 1913. The present picture of their son George and his sister Helga were also painted in 1922 [3065]. His aunt Hjördis Holter [4794] was painted in 1917. Helga was painted again on the eve of her marriage in 1934 [3063].

George Francis Howard Guinness was born 4 May 1915. He attended Shrewsbury School where he was an exceptional athlete. According to his sister, his winners' badges decorated the whole of the arm of his blazer in two rows.

On 7 August 1931, aged only 16, he died as a result of an accident with a gun in the family garden. His father later sponsored four boys from Shrewsbury to go to Balliol College, Oxford, in his son’s memory.

PROVENANCE:

Henry Samuel Guinness, the sitter’s father;

By descent

KF 2021