6871

Preparatory work

The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, née Lady Helen Gordon-Lennox 1937

Standing full length in a columned interior, wearing full regalia as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth, Queen Consort at the Coronation in 1937

Oil on canvasboard, 49.6 x 39.4 cm (19 ½ x 15 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / Syon 1937 / July [black ink]

Inscribed verso: The Study for / the Portrait of the Duchess of Northumberland / which I painted at Syon

Sitters’ Book II, f. 87:  Helen Northumberland Aug. 2nd 1937.

Studio Inventory, p. 61 (316): Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland, Mistress of the Robes. Acquired by the Duchess of Northumberland from the Trustees after the death of the artist. Painted at Syon House, Middlesex, a study for the completed picture now at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

Private Collection

This is a preparatory work for the small full-length portrait de László painted of the Duchess of Northumberland in July and August 1937 [6868], shortly before his death.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6841].

PROVENANCE:  
In the possession of the artist on his death;

Acquired by the sitter from the artist’s estate, c. 1938

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 378

CC 2008