1855

Mrs William Payne Thompson, née Edith Blight 1916

Half-length in profile to the left, her head turned in three-quarter face to the viewer, wearing a two-stranded pearl necklace, drop pearl earrings and holding a dark chiffon stole around her with her right hand, on which she wears a diamond ring

Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 63.5 cm (32 x 25 in.)

Inscribed lower right: László / LONDON. / 1916 . october. 

NPG Album 1912-1916, p. 25, where labelled Mrs Edith Blight Thompson /. new york / 1916.

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 8: Edith Blight Thompson Oct. 23rd 1916 / New York

Private Collection

This portrait was painted in London during the sitter’s visit from America to see her sister Lady Lowther [9143], whose husband de László painted in December 1915 [13370]. In a letter to the artist in October 1916, Lady Lowther wrote to inquire if he might paint Mrs Thompson: “May I break a long silence to ask you whether you are in town - whether I can see you and whether you will allow me to bring my Sister from America - Mrs Paynes [sic] Thompson to see you - She wants to persuade you to paint a sketch of her in oils - She admires the portrait of Gerard so greatly she longs for a chance of bringing a picture of yours back to America with her - She has only a short time here - but would devote what she could to you. Hoping for a favourable reply.”^[1]

In March 1917 the sitter wrote to de László from America to tell him of the picture’s reception there: “Time has indeed flown since I received yr. letter in January, & I have been meaning long ago to tell you of the real enthusiasm of my husband over the portrait! He was quite carried away, & is enchanted with it. I think you would have been pleased to see his, as well as the deep & sincere admiration of many others for this work of yours! Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney (who was a Miss Vanderbilt) is much interested in Art, & begged me to lend the portrait for a loan exhibition she was giving in New York, which I did. It had a grt. success, & was reproduced in one of our best monthly magazines “Town & Country”, I wanted to send you a copy but was told that it was prohibited now to send magazines to England. How sad that this terrible war is still raging, one wonders when peace will come. Then you may think of coming over for the promised portraits, when you do please dont forget to let me know, We shall do our best to try & get you to come & stop.”^[2]   

Five years later the artist painted Lady Lowther [9143] as a pendant to the 1915 portrait of her husband. He also painted the sitter’s brother-in-law the Honourable James Lowther, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1907 [12462] and [10209].

Edith Blight was born 24 April 1874 the daughter of Atherton Blight, an attorney from Philadelphia, and his wife, Nina Greenough, daughter of the sculptor Richard Greenough. The family lived at 36 W. 37th St, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. On 1 September 1897 at All Saints Chapel, Newport, she married William Payne Thompson, son of Colonel W. H. Thompson and Evelyn Moffat. There were no children of the marriage. In 1910 the couple built Longfields, a house designed by Carrere & Hastings, in Westbury, Long Island, which has since been demolished.

During a visit to London in 1908, the sitter was presented to King Edward and Queen Alexandra at Buckingham Palace. The New York Times reported that she had recently arrived in London from Paris, to attend the marriage of her friend Jean Reid [3408] to Sir John Ward [1697]. Reid was the daughter of the American Ambassador to the Court of St James’s, Whitelaw Reid, whose wife [6799] and daughter [3408] were painted by de László in 1922.^[3]

William Payne Thompson died in 1922 and the sitter continued to live at Longfields and regularly travelled to London to see her sister. In 1928 she purchased 20 Belgrave Square, near Lady Lowther who lived at no. 44. She commissioned an architect, Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington (1885-1972) to remodel it and the ballroom was painted with murals by the American artist Gardner Hale (1894-1931).^[4]

The sitter was a painter of landscapes, still lifes and interiors and studied with Frank DuMond (1865-1951) and Francis Mora (1874-1940). She exhibited under her maiden name at the Society of Independent Artists, New York, in 1917, the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1918, the Paris Salon in 1927, the Royal Academy, London in 1932-33, the National Academy of Design, the Newport Artists’ Association and at the Knoedler Gallery, London in 1936.

Edith Payne Thompson  died in England 31 August 1941.

PROVENANCE:

By descent

EXHIBITED:

•The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Paintings by Philip A. de László, 26 February-20 March 1921, no. 8

•M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Paintings by Philip A. de László, 4-16 April 1921, no. 2

LITERATURE:

•The New York Times, 14 January 1917

•DLA046-0019, letter from Lady Lowther to de László, 15 October 1916

•DLA046-0018, letter from Lady Lowther to de László, 5 December 1916

•DLA048-0011, letter from Mrs William Payne Thompson to de László, 11 March 1917

KF & MD 2020