[1] De László painted Lord Tweedmouth’s daughter-in-law Lady Muriel, née Brodrick (1881-1966) shortly before she married Dudley Churchill Majoribanks (1874-1935) on 30 November 1901 [111458]; the portrait may have been commissioned to celebrate this union, and the cheque to which Tweedmouth refers may well have been payment for it. Lady Muriel signed the artist’s sitters’ book on 30 October 1901; her signature is followed by the signatures of her father, William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856-1942) and her fiancé, both dated 1 November 1901 (Sitters’ Book I, f. 53). Lady Muriel’s father, Lord Midleton, was the then Secretary of State for War and held the post for most of the Second Boer War (1899-1902) (see fn 3 below). Lord Tweedmouth, a well-known Liberal politician, opposed the war. In a demonstration of 20 November 1901, Tweedmouth referred to the “terrible war” in South Africa that was draining national resources and “which was and must be the cause of the greatest anxiety to all thinking men” (“Lord Tweedmouth at Inverness”, The Scotsman, 20 November 1901, p. 10).

[2] Owen Rutter notes that de László “painted a three-quarter length portrait of Lord Tweedmouth [111537]” (Rutter, p. 208). The artist also made a portrait drawing in chalk of Tweedmouth [7039]. Lord and Lady Tweedmouth both signed the artist’s sitters’ book on a page that includes another signature with the date June 1900 (Sitters’ Book I, f. 46).

[3] Eustace Guiness (1860-1901), Lieutenant-Colonel Royal Artillery, the second of Lucy de László’s five brothers. Eustace was killed in action during the Boer War at Bakenlaagte in the Transvaal on 30 October 1901. “The English newspapers wrote about my brother-in-law as a hero – and he died as such on the battlefield”, wrote de László in a letter to Bishop Vilmos Fraknói. “The poor man was prepared in advance for his death, as all his affairs were found to be in order. In his will he left a large sum to the widows of soldiers killed in the war. Imagine, his batman who was with him survived, and he related that there was a very heavy fog at the time and that they only saw the Boers when they were already very close. His batman related his heroic death” (DLA044-0055, letter from de László to Bishop Vilmos Fraknói, 25 December 1901).