112414

DESTROYED

Preparatory work

Mrs Arthur Graham Glasgow, née Margaret Branch 1910

Seated full-length turned slightly left, full face to the viewer, wearing an evening gown and diadem in her hair, with her hands clasped in her lap

Oil on board, 78.7 x  52.1 cm (31 x 20 ½ in.)

Studio Inventory, p. 36 (187): A further study for the portrait at Moncorvo House, S.W.7.

Unusually, de László changed his mind several times about the composition of his portrait of Mrs Glasgow and tried three different iterations before he was satisfied. The sitter signed the artist’s Sitters’ Book on 7 March, which suggests the portrait was begun that day. Lucy de László, the artist’s wife, notes in her diary on 13 May that he put aside the composition and began again. This corresponds with an unfinished three-quarter length portrait left in de László’s studio until his death [112576]. The present study shows that he also considered painting the sitter seated.

The finished picture was not completed until June [5353]. Two other studies were included in the artist’s studio inventory, a full length study [112390] and a head and shoulder study [112389].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5353].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death

LITERATURE:

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 130, ill.

•László, Lucy de, 1910 diary, private collection

KF 2023