5924

Mrs Frank Billings Kellogg, née Clara May Cook 1929

Seated half length to the left, looking full face to the viewer, wearing an embroidered dark silk wrap over a grey silk gown, a grey ribbon with a cameo around her neck, her hands resting in her lap

Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 72.1 cm (36 ¼ x 28 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László 1929 / LONDON

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 64: Clara Kellogg / April 24 - 1929

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

It was hoped that de László would paint the present portrait as a pendant to the 1925 portrait of her husband [5917], however, her role as a diplomatic and society hostess denied her the required time for her sittings. It was not until four years later that she was finally able to do so while she was on a trip to London with Frank Billings Kellogg, whose portrait by de László had been commissioned by the US Department of State [5920].^[1] The artist offered to paint the portraits for 800 guineas each, and a cheque for ₤1,680 was sent to his secretary on 26 April 1929.^[2] Evidently the portrait of Mr Kellogg painted in 1925, which had since hung at the American Embassy in London, was returned to the Kelloggs in 1929, and a copy of it by Edward Patry replaced it in the Embassy. The original returned to the United States with the couple, as a pendant for the present picture. The frame for the portrait of Mrs Kellogg was provided by Mr Remy of the King’s Road in London.^[3] 

Both portraits were included in de László’s solo exhibition at the French Gallery in London from May to July 1929, after which they were shipped to the Kelloggs’ home in Washington, DC. Contemporary correspondence indicates that Mr Kellogg had arranged with C. Powell Minnigerode, Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, to also exhibit them there, though this does not appear to have taken place.^[4]

Clara May Cook was born on 30 December 1861, in Rochester, Minnesota. On 16 June 1886, she married Frank Billings Kellogg (1856-1937), who was at that time the attorney for Olmsted County, Minnesota. He made his fortune in private practice in St Paul, Minnesota, and went on to serve as a Republican senator from Minnesota (1917-23), Ambassador to Great Britain (1923-25) and Secretary of State (1925-29). The sitter supported her husband throughout, and was a popular hostess in Washington and London. Time magazine noted after her death, “She was a tactful, patient woman, whose grace often counteracted her husband’s impulsive conversation.” Her husband also related the story that, “President Coolidge said he had made him ambassador ‘as much because of Mrs. Kellogg as for himself.’”^[5] 

Mrs Kellogg died of a cerebral thrombosis at her home in St Paul on 1 October 1942, at the age of 80, having survived her husband by five years. She is buried with him at the National Episcopal Cathedral in Washington.^[6]

PROVENANCE:

Bequeathed by Mr and Mrs Frank B. Kellogg to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1944;

De-accessioned by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1979;

Sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, lot 80, 3 May 1979 (with [5917] included in the same lot);

Sold at Christie’s East, New York, lot 438, 2 March 1990 (with [5917]);

Private Collection;

On loan to the United States Ambassadorial Residence, Winfield House, London, 1991-1994;

Donated to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., by Dr Edward T. Wilson, 2006

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., May-June, 1929, no. 13

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., July 1929, no. 30

•Murakami Gallery, New York, Hungarian Masters – A Reassessment The Last 120 Years, 27-28 June 1995, no. 4

LITERATURE:

•DLA096-0017, article, “Crewe House All Ready for New Occupants,” New York Herald, Paris, 5 February 1925

•DLA040-0012, letter from Ray Atherton, Secretary at the US Embassy in London, to de László, 24 July 1928

•DLA040-0013, letter from de László’s secretary to Ray Atherton, 25 July 1928

•DLA040-0010, letter from Ray Atherton to de László, 23 October 1928

•DLA040-0006, letter from de László to Ray Atherton, 5 November 1928

•DLA073-0074, letter from Ray Atherton to de László, 26 April 1929

•DLA073-0073, letter from de László to Ray Atherton, 29 April 1929

•DLA 114-0136, letter from de László to C. Powell Minnigerode, Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 15 July 1929

MD 2012