4573

Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, 1st Viscount Devonport 1921

Standing half-length to the left, looking to the right, wearing a brown tweed jacket and waistcoat, and a trilby hat, holding a shotgun, a dark landscape with a gleam of light in the sky beyond

Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 85.09 cm (43 ½ x 33 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1921 III 

Laib L10262(678) / C7(34)  

NPG 1917-21 Album, p. 130

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 16: Devonport. July 28. 1920.

Private Collection

De László painted the sitter on two other occasions, in 1914 in Court Dress [4571], currently on loan to Cranleigh School, Surrey, the sitter’s alma mater, and again in 1925, for the Port of London Authority Building [4570]. He also painted Lady Devonport in 1915 [4001].  

De László’s career was beginning to recover from the ordeals of the First World War, when the present picture was painted in 1921. Lord Devonport had long been a close friend of the artist and had remained loyal and supportive throughout those difficult years. De László’s biographer, Owen Rutter, described this work as a ‘souvenir,’ and as such was probably painted as a gift to the sitter as thanks for all that he had done to aid the artist's release from prison and clearing his name and reputation.^[1]

Sittings for the present portrait took place infrequently over a period of months, accounting for Devonport having signed the Sitters’ Book in July 1920 and de László signing the portrait in March 1921. The first sitting took place 28 July, the second 27 November, and then the portrait was completed on the 8 and 9 March 1921.^[2]

For biographical notes on the sitter see [4571].

EXHIBITED:  

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1924, no. 33  

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 345

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 89

•László, Philip de, 1920 appointment book, private collection

•László, Philip de, 1921 appointment book, private collection

KF 2012