9759

Preparatory work

Mary Ridgely Carter, later Mrs James Montgomery Beck 1934

Standing full-length turned to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a long gold dress and a stole in a landscape

Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 35.7 cm (18 x 14 in.)

Sitters’ Book II, f. 78: Mary Ridgely Carter July 20th 1934

Studio Inventory, p. 19 (110): Miss Carter, Philadelphia. Painted at 3 Ftizjohn’s Ave.London Study for large picture now in Philadephia

Private Collection

This is the first of two preparatory oil sketches for the formal full-length portrait [9636]. Mary Carter posed 17 April in a: “golden taffeta picture dress – as if walking in the open – with sun reflection.”^[1] A brief film clip of the sitter walking towards the camera in that dress, in the garden of de László’s studio at 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, exists in the de László Archive.

The sitter’s family decided they would rather Mary posed in a white dress with a blue sash and so a second preparatory oil study [9760] was painted, which is much closer in composition and colouring to the finished picture. A sheet with the first two preparatory drawings remains in the collection of a descendent of the artist [111606].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [9636].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Presented by the artist’s family to the sitter’s family, 1960

LITERATURE:

•László, Philip de, 1934 diary, private collection, 17 April entry

MD 2014