4770

Mrs Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, née Margaret Redhead 1924

Seated three-quarter-length to the right, wearing a pale sleeveless evening dress embroidered with seed pearls and crystal beads, a stole draped over her arm and behind her, a magenta ribbon in her hair, holding a bouquet of orchids and a long string of pearls draped around her left wrist.

Oil on canvas, 124.5 x 94 cm (49 x 37 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1924.

Laib L11565 (799) / C11 (37)

Private Collection

An unfinished version of this portrait with the sitter seated on a French sofa was in the possession of the artist on his death [54]. That portrait was destroyed, according to de László’s wishes, by his trustees after his death.

The sitter identified the dress she wears as that worn by her grandmother when she had been presented at court. De László was said to have insisted on painting her wearing it and added the contrasting material at her waist. As she posed for the artist she held a newspaper in her hands rather than the orchids depicted in the portrait, which de László later painted in. Mrs Harmsworth also recalls that she wore no ribbon in her hair during the sittings and that one was also added later.^[1]

Margaret ‘Peggy’ Hunnum Redhead was born in 1897, daughter of William Lancelot Redhead (1852-1909) and his wife Jennie Casalova Gorham (1875- ?). The family lived at Carville Hall in Brentford, her father recorded as having retired by the time of the 1901 census. On 29 March 1915, at St Martin in the Fields, she married second lieutenant Cecil Herbert Lane. They had met four days previously and she was a minor so gave her name as Peggy Lacon and lied about her age. He proved to be abusive and a divorce was finalised in November 1915.^[2]

She met Lieutenant Esmond Cecil Harmsworth (1898-1978) [4744][4772] in 1919 while he was stationed in Paris as aide-de-camp to the Prime Minister David Lloyd George [6072][6076], for the Versailles Peace Conference. They married on 12 January 1920 and had three children: Lorna Peggy Vyvyan (born 1920) [4774], Esmée Mary Gabriel (born 1922) [4776], and a son, Vere (born 1925) [4782], who was named after his uncle who had been killed in the First World War [1737].

The couple at first resided in Paris at 154 avenue des Champs-Elysées, the splendid apartment commissioned by Esmond Harmsworth’s father, Lord Rothermere [4759]. Designed by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, after his triumphal showing at the 1925 Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs, the apartment, with its broad view of the Arc de Triomphe, included many grand rooms and several of these were refurbished for the sitter. She was still known as ‘Miss Redhead’ after her marriage, and among the pieces Rhulmann created for her were a ‘Redhead’ vanity and dressing table.

According to her son, Margaret Harmsworth had: “a strong sense of Victorian obligation. She dedicated much of her energy in the 1920s and 30s to providing aid in the East End of London, which was very deprived at the time. During the Second World War she worked in Liverpool, helping seamen from the Atlantic convoys: forbidden from leaving the dockyards when docking their destroyers, Lady Harmsworth provided comfort and entertainment for them.”^[3] 

Margaret Harmsworth was a renowned breeder of Arabian horses and instrumental in founding the All Nations Cup show for the breed. She and the Daily Mail funded a silver trophy for the best horse, which was renamed "The Lady Harmsworth Blunt Memorial Trophy" after her death.

The sitter married Commander Thomas Hussey in 1938, after the dissolution of her second marriage. She married a fourth time, to Sir John Lionel Blunt, in 1947 and in her later years styled herself Lady Harmsworth Blunt.

Margaret Harmsworth Blunt died on 12 November 1991 at her home in Mayfield, Sussex.

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1924, no. 31

•Hotel Jean Charpentier, Paris, Exposition P. A. László, June 1931, no. 52

LITERATURE:

•The Sketch, 28 May 1924, p. 413, ill.

•The Daily Graphic, 26 June 1924, ill.

KF 2013