4443

William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland 1912

Standing three-quarter length full face to the left, wearing evening dress with the Order of the Garter, his stick and white gloves in his right hand, his left (with a ring on the fourth finger) doubled on his hip

Oil on canvas, 127 x 101.6 cm (48 ½ x 39 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. László / 1912   

Sitters’ Book I, f. 85: Portland / Welbeck Feb 6th. 1912.

Private Collection

The present portrait was rejected in favour of a second version [4442]. In his memoirs, the Duke wrote: “He began by painting two pictures of me. The first canvas did not satisfy him, so he said, ‘Now that I know you so well, I hope you will give me further sittings; this is for a posed portrait, and I am sure I can paint one that will be much more simple and characteristic.’”^[1] 

In a letter to the Duke of 15 March 1912, de László further explained: “I was very ambitious to come as near to my ideal as possible in the portraits I painted at Welbeck, and for this reason, I felt I must make another try at you. The last one is the one, and I beg you to keep the first canvas [the present portrait] as the first attempt that did not satisfy me.”^[2] A copy of this portrait, head-and-shoulders only, by Arthur Spooner was given by the Duke of Portland to the Corporation of Newark, 1928. There also remains a preparatory sketch [11126] for the present portrait and its final version [4442].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4442].

LITERATURE:

•Correspondence from the Duchess of Devonshire to her husband the 9th Duke, 27 November 1912, Devonshire Mss., Chatsworth. By permission of the Duke of Devonshire

•Goulding, Richard W., The Catalogue of Pictures. The Duke of Portland, prepared by C. K. Adams, Cambridge University Press, 1936 (Private printing of 150 copies), nº 931

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck (6th Duke), Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, pp. 220-1, ill. between pp. 224 and 225

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 275

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 130

CC 2008