3551

Study portrait

Alastair Norman Balfour of Dawyk 1931

Standing half-length in three-quarter profile to the right, wearing a brown shooting jacket, white shirt and the green and red striped tie of The Royal Company of Archers, his left hand to his lapel, a shotgun under his right arm, against a landscape background

Oil on board, 96.5 x 71.2 cm (38 x 28 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1931

Laib L17037(175) / C2(10A)  

NPG Album 1931, p. 14

Private Collection

This portrait was a gift from de László to Alastair Balfour on the occasion of his twenty-first birthday. According to the sitter, it was painted in only two sittings of about two hours each, at the artist’s home and studio in Fitzjohn’s Avenue.^[1] 

De László recorded the first sitting in his diary on 3 October: “In the afternoon painted a portrait sketch in Scotch dress of Alister [sic] Balfour – my coming to [sic] age present – while painting his father Fred chatted with Lu & went for paying visits – Alister  is a most handsome young man & will do well – If only he will stand his good look! Could not get quite through – his father came back was enchanted. We had all tea – Then we drove up to the Heath – it was a most beautiful autumn sunset – would have loved to sketch it.”^[2]

Alastair wrote to thank the artist 9 October 1931: “I must write you a line of thanks, for the very wonderful kindness you have shown to us, by painting my picture and then giving it us. It is a most generous gift, and I hope you understand how very much we all appreciate it.”^[3]

De László and his wife Lucy became close friends of the Balfour family. He painted the sitter’s mother in 1920 [2139], his father Frederick [3547] and sister Jean [3554] [3558], while staying at Dawyck, their country estate in Scotland. He also painted the sitter’s maternal uncles Montagu Norman [6464] [6465] and Ronald Norman [6469] and his paternal aunt Margaret Balfour in 1917 [6436].

Alastair Norman Balfour was born 20 March 1909, was the son of Frederick Balfour of Dawyck (1873-1945) and his wife Gertrude Norman (1878-1970). He joined Schroders Bank and worked in Germany until the outbreak of the Second World War. Baron Bruno Schroder [6972] and his family were also very close friends of the de Lászlós and he painted some eighteen portraits of them.

During the Second World War, Alastair served with the Lothian and Border Horse in the Intelligence Service. He fought in Holland and France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. He was in North Africa until the fall of Tunis in May 1942. His father died in 1945 and in 1978 Alastair gifted the Dawyck estate to the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens, retaining the house until his death 17 October 1996.

PROVENANCE:

Gift from the artist to the sitter;

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED:

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of Recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de Laszlo, M.V.O., September 1932, no. 30

LITERATURE:

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

KF 2021