11578

POSTHUMOUS

Major Lord Charles George Francis Mercer Nairne 1915

Half-length, full face, wearing the blue dress uniform of the 1st Royal Dragoon Guards

Oil on canvas, 80 x 56 cm (31 ½ x 22 in.)

Laib L7855(58) / C20(15) Lord Niarn [sic]

NPG Album 1915-16, p. 54

Private Collection

This is one of de László’s rare posthumous portraits, painted after the sitter was killed in action on 31 October 1914 at Klein Zillebeke in Belgium, near Ypres. De László disliked painting portraits from photographs but could not refuse appeals from close friends and patrons who had lost their sons in the First World War. These included Prince Maurice of Battenberg [3501] for his mother Princess Beatrice [3485], The Honourable Robert Palmer for the 2nd Earl of Selborne [6965] and Arthur Rosdew Burn [111215] for Charles Burn, 1st Baronet Leith of Fyvie [111214].

The significance of these portraits to the families of the deceased sitters is evident in a letter from the sitter’s father the 5th Marquis of Lansdowne to his daughter, Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, dated 19 December 1915: “Laszlo has … succeeded in making quite a good one of Charlie from the untouched photograph which we produced – I cannot say how glad I am that we should have something which will perpetuate the features which we all loved so much. I feel sure you will like it.”^[1] 

De László and the Marquis’ mutual satisfaction with the portrait is apparent in a letter from the artist dated January 1916: “That I have succeeded in expressing what you desire in the portraits of Lady Lansdowne and your son, is to me the greatest satisfaction, & joy.”^[2]

Another version of this portrait by an unknown artist is in the collection at Bowood House in Wiltshire {5975]. De László painted the sitter’s mother the Marchioness of Lansdowne in 1916 [5969], and his father the 5th Marquis twice in 1920 [5959] [5960]. The sitter’s brother, Henry William, 6th Marquis of Lansdowne [5972] was painted in 1934; his wife, the Countess of Kerry [3143] in 1923 and their elder daughter, Lady Katherine Fitzmaurice [3146] in 1933.

In 1916, the sitter’s widow, Lady Violet, married Colonel The Honourable John Jacob Astor. She was painted in 1925 [8208] and 1927 [2445] and her daughter with Charles Nairne was painted in 1927 [11287].

Lord Charles George Francis Petty-Fitzmaurice was born on 12 February 1874, the second son of Henry Charles Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne (1845-1927) and his wife, Lady Maud Evelyn Hamilton (1850-1932). Like his elder brother he was educated at Eton. He was a career soldier and courtier, joining the 1st King's Dragoon Guards in 1895. He was aide-de-Camp to Field Marshal Earl Roberts [6924] during the Boer War 1899-1900 and again from January 1901 when Roberts was appointed Commander in Chief of the Forces. Between 1909 and 1914 he served as Equerry to King George V. In May 1902, he was part of a delegation led by the Duke of Connaught [4117] to attend the coronation in Madrid of King Alfonso XIII of Spain [7925]. He assumed the surname of Mercer Nairne in January 1914 on inheriting the Meikleour Estate in Perthshire, which had descended in his paternal-grandmother’s family.

On 20 January 1909 he married Lady Violet Mary Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, youngest daughter of the 4th Earl of Minto. They had two children: Margaret (born 1910) and George John Charles (born 1912). His son succeeded as the 8th Marquis of Lansdowne in August 1944 when his cousin Charles Hope, 7th Marquis, died serving in Italy in the Second World War.

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 306-7

•DLA121-0123, letter from de László to Lord Landsdowne, January 1916

KF 2023