6387

Preparatory drawing

Helena Woolworth McCann 1932

Seated three-quarter length to the right, head turned and looking to the left, wearing a sleeveless evening dress, her right hand by her side, a rough frame drawn around the whole

Charcoal and sepia chalk, heightened with white and blue on buff paper, 50.8 x 35.6 cm (20 x 14 in.)

Inscribed lower right: Miss McCann / N. J.  1932. 

Inscribed verso top left: 97 / Mrs. McCann 1932 / New York  [in the hand of John de Laszlo]

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 72: Helena Mc Cann Feb 2nd 1932

Studio Inventory, p. 149 (97): Study of Mrs. McCann. Done in New York.

Private Collection

This is a preparatory drawing for the portrait of Helena McCann [110597], painted during the artist’s fourth visit to America in 1932. The pose is virtually identical to the finished picture. He also painted a half-length of her sister Constance [110596] during that visit.

De László painted the sitter’s father Charles McCann [111414] and mother Helena [110594] [113359] in 1933 and two further portraits of her mother in London in 1936. [6390] [6393]  

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [110597].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent in his family;

Christie’s South Kensington, 13 June 1997, lot 82

KF 2021