7744

REJECTED

Lady Rhys Williams, née Juliet Glyn 1924

Half-length to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a black dress covered by a black drape, a golden laurel wreath in her hair

Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 58.5 cm (30 x 23 in.) [oval]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 39: Juliet Williams March 4th 1924

Studio Inventory, p. 8 (47) Lady Williams, daughter of Mrs. Clayton Glyn (Elinor Glyn). Acquired after the artist’s death from the Trustees, together with Certificate of Authenticity

Private Collection

This portrait was originally rectangular and slightly larger before being cut down to the present oval at a later date. The sitter’s mother, Elinor Glyn, commissioned the portrait and had already been painted herself twice in 1914 [5361] [5359] and would be again in 1927 [5363]. De László painted the sitter’s grandmother, Mrs. Kennedy, in 1915 [5865] and her aunt Lady Duff-Gordon in 1913 [13201] and her sister Margot [4643] [4650].  

The laurel crown worn by this sitter was one of the artist’s studio props; used to adorn the heads of the Duchess of Portland in 1912 [4417], Mrs. Austen Chamberlain in 1915 [3801], Lady Kathleen Stanley in 1920 [2117], Madame Vanier [12887] and his wife, Lucy, in 1936 [7466].

Lady Rhys Williams rejected the present portrait, thinking it revealed that she had a heavy cold, and that she had been concentrating too hard on her pose, in an effort to not appear contrived. The result, she felt, was too “chocolate-boxy.”^[1] It was de László’s practice to start again when a portrait was not to his or the sitter’s satisfaction and a second portrait was completed in 1925 [7748].

The portrait remained in the artist’s studio until his death in 1937, at which time it was offered to the sitter by his executors. The studio inventory notes that it had passed into her possession by October 1938, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by the Trustees.

For biographical notes on the sitter see [7748].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Bought from the estate by Sir Rhys Rhys Williams, husband of the sitter

KF 2013