6823

The Honourable Ivy Gordon-Lennox 1915

Standing three-quarter length in profile to the left, three-quarter face looking back to the viewer, wearing a white gown with a green bow on the shoulder and a pearl necklace, her left hand to her breast, her right holding the white chiffon that is draped around her

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 67.4 cm (35 ½ x 26 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: P.A. de László / 1915. Aug .   

Sitters’ Book I, f. 104: Ivy Gordon-Lennox July 29d. [among other signatures dated 1915]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 3: Ivy Titchfield  April 3rd 1916. / (née Gordon Lennox)

Private Collection

This portrait was painted less than two weeks before Ivy Gordon-Lennox married Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck the Marquess of Titchfield. De László painted another portrait of the sitter wearing her wedding dress and veil which he inscribed ‘my wedding present’ and presented to the young couple [6825].

Unfortunately no archive material has yet come to light to clarify the circumstances under which the present portrait was commissioned. However, as it seems it did not hang in the 6th Duke of Portland’s László room,^[1] it is likely that the Marquess of Titchfield [6821] was inspired to commission the portrait of his fiancée himself, on the eve of their wedding.

The Honorable Ivy Gordon-Lennox was born on 16 June 1887, the only child of Lord Algernon Charles Gordon-Lennox and Blanche Maynard. She was Maid of Honour to Queen Alexandra from 1912 to 1915. On 12 August 1915 she married William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Marquess of Titchfield, at Welbeck Abbey. De László made a vivid pencil drawing of the chapel and congregation during the ceremony [11196]. The Marquess succeeded his father as 7th Duke in 1943. There were two daughters of the marriage, Alexandra Margaret Anne (born 1916) and Victoria Margaret (born 1918).

Like her mother-in-law, Duchess Winifred, the sitter was an active charity worker, and her name was particularly associated with hospitals. She was the first President of the Daffodil Organisation, which operated in thirteen local hospitals, as well as President of the Nottinghamshire branch of the British Red Cross Society, and of the League of Friends of Mansfield Hospital. She was also Chairman of the Council of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, and President of the Nottingham and District Guild for the Disabled. During the Second World War, she administered auxiliary hospitals in Nottinghamshire, and invested much of her time in Harlow Orthopaedic Hospital, which was built thanks to the generosity of the 6th Duke of Portland, who had given the land for the hospital. At the time of the sitter’s death, the then Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, Commander Philip Franklin, said of her: “She possessed a great sense of public duty and this, together with her wit, natural beauty and boundless energy, enabled her to give not only great support to the late Duke during his lifetime of service but also to encourage and help people in all walks of life and indeed to many admirable organizations […] She derived great pleasure from her love of the countryside, in which she excelled as a horse-woman. But it was perhaps in her beautiful home as a hostess that her many gifts shone so brightly.”^[2] The sitter was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 1958, and seven years later received a Honorary Doctorate of Law at Nottingham University. She much enjoyed playing golf, and was President of the Nottinghamshire Ladies’ Golf Club. She died on 3 March 1982, aged ninety-four.

LITERATURE:          

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck (6th Duke), Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, ill. facing p. 213

•The Tatler, no. 830, 23 May 1917, p. 248, ill.

•Woman’s Pictorial, 15 April 1922, p. iii, ill.

•The Patrician, vol. 8, no. 25, Summer 1917 number, p. 41, ill.

•The Evening Post, 5 March 1982

•The Morning Telegraph, 6 March 1982

CC 2008