2894

Study portrait

Lieutenant The Honourable Michael Knatchbull-Hugessen 1914

Half-length to the right, head in three-quarter profile and looking to the viewer, wearing service dress of the Royal Artillery and Sam Browne belt

Oil on board, 91.5 x 71.5cm (36 x 28 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P A de Laszlo / 1914 nov. 17

Inscribed centre left by the sitter: Michael K-Hugessen

Laib L7572(788) / C14(22A)  

NPG Album 1915-16, f. 36

Sitters’ Book I, f. 100: Michael Knatchbull-Hugessen 18.11. '14

New Place Hotel, Southampton

This is an early example of the study portraits de László painted of First World War officers before their departure to the front. Early optimism that the war would be over quickly meant he only painted seven such works between August and December 1914, compared with some thirty-seven in 1915. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter’s father Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Baron Brabourne [2521] and his son in turn commissioned a portrait of his father in 1922. A photograph of the present portrait was inscribed by the artist to the sitter’s mother: “To dear Mrs. Knatchbull Hugessen / from your devoted / László 1914.” 

De László also painted the 6th Marquess [5946] and Marchioness of Sligo [5943], parents of the sitter’s wife Lady Doreen Browne. The artist recorded seeing Knatchbull at their home for tea 24 June 1936 and recalled his initial opinion of the then nineteen-year-old in 1914 “as a spoiled good looking Eatonian [sic] – already very clever.”^[1]

The Honourable Michael Herbert Rudolph Knatchbull-Hugessen was born 8 May 1895, the son of Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Baron Brabourne (1863-1933) and his wife Helena Flesch, daughter of Hermann Flesch, an Imperial Councilor of Vienna. He was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

At the outbreak of the First World War he commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and served in the Gallipoli Campaign from April 1915, attached to No. 3 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service. He was engaged in highly dangerous reconnaissance missions and was twice shot down. On 23 July 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant and on 22 September 1915 he received a mention in despatches from General Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He was awarded the Military Cross for his "distinguished service in the Field during the operations at the Dardanelles."^[2]

Knatchbull was seconded to the staff as an aide-de-camp on 8 June 1916. He served in this role until 20 April 1918, when he was seconded to the Royal Air Force as a Staff Officer. On 8 November 1918 he received a mention in despatches from Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. After the war he was granted a permanent commission in the RAF with the rank of Lieutenant, before ill-health forced his retirement from active service on 1 October 1920 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

On 22 January 1919 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, he married Lady Doreen Geraldine Browne, youngest daughter of the 6th Marquess of Sligo (1856-1935) and his wife Agatha Hodgson (1866-1965). The same year he dropped Hugessen from his surname by deed poll. There were two sons of the marriage: Norton (born 1922) and John (born 1924).

In 1931 he was elected MP for Ashford Division, Kent, and from 1932-33 served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for India. At the death of his father in 1933 he succeeded as 5th Baron Brabourne. The same year he was appointed Governor of Bombay and in 1937 made Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India. Baron Brabourne was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1937 and served as Viceroy for four months in 1938 while Lord Linlithgow vacationed in England.

Baron Brabourne died in office on 23 February 1939 following surgery for cancer and was buried in St John’s Churchyard, Calcutta, India. In 1979 his widow was murdered by the Provisional IRA with Earl Mountbatten [3510] and her grandson Nicholas Knatchbull.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Offered Sotheby’s, 26 March 2021, lot 92

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 297

•László, Philip de, March-July 1936 diary, private collection, 23 June entry, pp. 129-130

KF 2021