3387

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies 1933

Standing three-quarter length to the right, with her arms folded as if she were leaning on the back of a chair, full-face looking up to the left, in theatrical costume; a brown gown and a tall white headdress draped with a veil

Oil on canvas, 109.2 x 77.5 cm (43 x 30 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1933 29 July   

Studio Inventory, p. 3 (17): Miss Gwen Ffrangcon Davies. Miss Ffrangcon Davies  posed for Mr. de Laszlo's portrait which forms a series of illustrations for his book “How to Paint a Portrait,” published by The Studio, with letter press by A. Lys Baldry. This canvas is a study for a more important work

Private Collection

In 1933 the editor of The Studio, C. G. Holme, asked de László to paint a portrait to demonstrate the art of portraiture for his series of How to Do It books. De László agreed, but did not want to appear to be a teacher of portrait painting, so it was decided that while painting, his old friend the critic A. L. Baldry [3562] would question him about his technique and Holme would photograph the progress. As a model the versatile actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was chosen. The resulting publication tells us much about de László’s technique: the ‘sight size’ method, with the sitter and the canvas placed close together; the artist steps away to compare the two, and back to the canvas to paint what he has observed: “When I stand back I am recording mentally what I am going to put on my canvas when I walk up to it.”^[1] This practice is also well illustrated in a contemporary cine film that was made with the camera given to de László by George Eastman when he painted him in 1926 [4994].

This portrait shows the sitter in her costume as Anne of Bohemia in Gordon Daviot’s Richard of Bordeaux, which she played opposite Sir John Gielgud as Richard II. It opened at the New Theatre in London in 1933 and was an immediate success.

Lucy de László recorded the painting of the portrait in her diary: “Philip is frightfully brain & physically tired. On the 27th / 28th Mr Holme was in the Studio to take photos of P painting Miss Ffrancon-Davies for a volume he will bring out on how Laszlo paints portraits. Broiling days-exciting athmosphere. I was present when they began, & P. was strung up, strong & confident for the ordeal. The mg: & one whole day was devoted to this work. About 150 photos were taken. Miss F. Davies was splendid in her lovely dress from Richard of Bordeaux - The posing was agonizing for her. I massaged the back of her neck in a pause - P. was so active that Mr Holme had to wait for the moment when to snap the action of his putting the paint on canvas. The portrait is full of life & expression - Lady Forres came both days & Mr Baldry came for one night to be present also in the studio. He will supply the literary part of the volume.”^[2]

In 1934 de László painted her again, in her costume for the title role in Daviot’s Queen of Scots, and gave her the portrait as a gift [5067]. He also painted another, smaller, portrait of her in that same costume which, like the present portrait, he kept in his studio, and is now in the possession of one of his descendants [13549].

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was born in London 25 January 1891, the daughter of David Ffrangcon-Davies, a well known baritone of the day, and his wife Annie Francis Rayner. She was educated at South Hampstead School and then studied abroad. As a teenager she went backstage to see Ellen Terry for whom she recited the potion speech from Romeo and Juliet, and Terry gave her the encouragement she needed. She made her debut in a walk-on part in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1911. Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies became a well-known classical stage actress over some eighty years. In these early days it was her singing voice which brought her work; she toured in musical comedy shows and sang at concerts. By 1921 she was taking lead roles with the Birmingham Repertory Company, under the great actor-manager Sir Barry Jackson. There she originated the role of Eve in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Back to Methuselah’ in 1923. She acted in many leading roles alongside the great actors and actresses of the day. Her long association with the heroines of William Shakespeare’s plays began with Cordelia in King Lear (1924) and later included Cleopatra, Portia, Titania, Ophelia, Regan, Beatrice, Queen Katharine, Lady Macbeth and Juliet to John Gielgud's Romeo in 1924, which was her most famous role. Abroad, her chief achievement was to set the South African theatre on its feet from 1943 to 1946 with her South African-born friend Marda Vanne.

She last appeared on stage in Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in 1970, but she continued to act on television and in radio, recording her last television appearance at the age of 100. Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies had a rare ability to identify herself with the part she was playing to such an extent that while on stage she herself, as she said, “ceased to exist”. She made her home in a small village near Halstead in Essex in a listed 17th century cottage, virtually untouched by 20th Century technology and consumerism, where she enjoyed gardening. Fiercely independent, she lived alone with only her cat as company to the end of her life. She was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1991. Dame Gwen died at home on 27 January, 1992, just after her one hundred-and-first birthday.

The sitter was also painted by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) in 1932, as Isabella of France.^[3] (oil on canvas, Tate).

PROVENANCE:          

In the possession of the artist on his death

EXHIBITED:          

•Royal West of England Academy, 88th Annual Exhibition, November 1933-February 1934, no. 117                         

•Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster, Twenty-second Summer Exhibition of Modern Art, 1935, no. 131

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 125

•Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, 2024, no. 49

LITERATURE:

•László, Lucy de, 1933 diary, private collection, 30 July entry, p. 213, a letter, side (iv)

•“The Palette of P.A. de László: Philip A. de László with Miss Gwen Ffrangcon Davies and his portrait of her,” in The Studio, vol. CVII, London, 1934, pp. 38-9, ill.

•Everyman, no. 33, 11 May 1934, p. 329, ill.

•Holme, C.G., ed., Painting a Portrait by de László, in How To Do It Series nº 6, Introduction by A.L. Baldry, The Studio, 1934        

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 384

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, p. 193, ill. p. 192

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 248-249

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 15, ill.

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 35, ill.

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance,

Blackmore, 2024, p. 155, ill. p. 154

CWS 2008