5869

Study portrait

Mrs Edwin Konstam, née Mary Beatrix Loyd 1931

Half-length to the left, wearing a turquoise stole over her head and shoulders

Oil on board, 99.1 x 73.7 cm (39 x 29 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1931 X 

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 69: Kitty Konstam Oct. 7th 1931

Private Collection

During the 1930s, de László planned to paint a monumental history painting related to the First World War. He never achieved this but made many preparatory sketches in oil, and in pencil and crayon. The artist would request sittings of women whom he envisaged as good models for his composition, make a study for his own needs (see [5871] for such a study of Mrs Konstam) and in gratitude make another to present to the sitter, in this case the present portrait. His diary indicates that he painted this picture first and planned to paint a war sketch of her at a later date, “came to tea - & mr & mrs konstam – He was happy (in his own way-) with her sketch in blue, which I gave them as a present – He was very good to Paul when called to the Bar - & she will sit next year for my contemplated picture of 1914 – 1918”^[1]

Further examples of this practice are de László’s study portrait of Lady Alexandra Haig, later Lady Dacre of Glanton [5549] and three war portrait sketches of her in similar pose and dress to that of Mrs Konstam [5871], completed in 1935 [8845], [13524] and [111569]. Lady Haig is shown draped in the same blue silk that was kept in the artist’s studio and used in the present picture and the portrait of HRH the Duchess of York in 1925 [4460].

Mary Beatrix Loyd, born 26 October 1885, was the youngest child and of the Reverend Lewis Haig Loyd (1844-1905). Known as Kitty, she was a cousin of Lady Wantage of Lockinge and became a companion to her after the death of her husband in 1901.^[2]

Lady Wantage was painted by de László in 1911 [4473] and [11384], and the artist certainly stayed with her on a number of occasions, as is evidenced by his and his wife’s signatures in the visitors’ book. It is quite possible that de László knew the sitter in that connection. Lady Wantage introduced her to Edwin Max Konstam, CBE, KC (1870-1956) and they were married at St. Peter’s Eaton Square, London on 27 September 1918.  

Mrs Konstam died 2 October 1989, at the great age of 103, and is buried with her husband at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.  

PROVENANCE:  

Given by the artist to the sitter;

Bequeathed by the sitter to C.L. Loyd, 1989

LITERATURE:

•The Loyd Collection Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture,

1991, no.  39A, p. 17

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

KF 2012