2671

Peter John Ambrose Calvocoressi 1917

Seated three-quarter length in an armchair, wearing a velvet tunic and a necklace, holding open an illustrated book open on his knees, his left arm resting on the arm of the chair

Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 62.2 cm (30 x 24 ½ in.)

Inscribed top left: de László / 1917 June   

Laib L8559 (678) / C4 (7)  

NPG Album 1917-21, p. 43

Sitters’ Book II, f. 10: Peter Calvocoressi 8.6.1917.

Private Collection

This was the first portrait de László painted of the three children of Mr and Mrs Pandia Calvocoressi. Two years later, he painted Peter’s sister Veronica [2307], and in 1924, his younger sister Norma [2725]. The Calvocoressis and their cousins, the Argenti [2301], Ralli, and Lambrinudi [110636] families, were considerable patrons of the artist. De László painted the children’s grandmother, Mrs Ambrose Ralli, in 1921 [2676]. A letter from the sitter’s mother Irene Calvocoressi, indicates that the sittings for the present portrait took place on 7, 8, 13 and 14 June 1917.

Peter John Ambrose Calvocoressi was born in Karachi in 1912 into a Greek mercantile family originating from Chios in the Aegean. He was the eldest child and only son of the three children of Pandia John Calvocoressi (1874-1965), who worked for Ralli Bros., and his wife Irene, née Ralli (1882-1937). According to his autobiography, Threading My Way,^[1] he came to England at the age of three months. He was educated at Eton and then at Balliol College, Oxford, where he read and gained a 1st in History. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1935. He married Barbara Eden in 1938. During the Second World War he served in Ultra Intelligence at Bletchley Park and lived nearby with his wife and children. As head of the Air section, his responsibility was to assess the importance of decrypted Luftwaffe signals. After the war he was seconded to the Nuremberg trials as an adviser to the US prosecuting team, bringing with him a small team from Bletchley who were specialists in two of the six indicted organizations: the German General Staff and High Command and the SS (Schutzstaffel). 

His subsequent career was dominated by his two main interests: international affairs and publishing. He worked at the Royal Institute of International Affairs from 1949 to 1954 and was a member of its council between 1955 and 1970. For the next sixteen years he ran a monthly symposium (nicknamed ‘Speakeasy’ by Andrew Boyd of The Economist), which gathered for dinners in London and was an intellectual forum to discuss foreign affairs. Alongside this symposium he wrote a weekly column on international affairs for syndication in the provincial papers owned by the Westminster Press. During this time he also served on the governing bodies of Chatham House and the Institute of Strategic Studies; for nine years he was a member of the UN Sub-Commission of the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities; Chairman of the Africa Bureau from 1963 and for a short stint he sat on the International Executive of Amnesty International, between 1969 and 1971. In 1955 he joined the publishing firm Chatto & Windus where he was a partner and later a director.

From 1965 until 1972 he was a part-time Reader in International Relations at the University of Sussex. Following his teaching post he was invited to join the publishing house Penguin, where he was appointed Editorial Director in 1972, and, the following year, promoted Publisher and Chief Executive. He also served as chairman of the London Library between 1970 and 1973. He left Penguin in 1976.

The sitter wrote nearly 20 books including Top Secret Ultra, Total War, Resilient Europe, Who’s Who in the Bible, and World Politics since 1945, which was published in its 8th edition in 2008.  

The sitter’s wife died in 2005 and he married Rachel Scott 25 July 2006. Peter Calvocoressi died on 5 February 2010, aged ninety-seven.

PROVENANCE:

Sold Christie’s, King Street, 16 Dec 2015, lot 142

EXHIBITED:  

•Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Forty-Seventh Autumn Exhibition of Modern Art, 22 September-6 December 1919, no. 901

LITERATURE:

•László, Philip de, 1934 diary, private collection, 21 July entry, p. 107

KF 2016