4047

Mrs Eric Chaplin, née the Honourable Gwladys Wilson 1915

Standing half-length in profile to the right, three-quarter face, wearing a white evening dress with the indication of a shot-gold organza stole; drop earrings and a jade bracelet, holding a pearl necklace in her right hand which is raised to her breast

Oil on board, 90.2 x 67.6 cm (35 ½ x 26 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. de László / 1915. June 14.   

Laib L7673 (396) / C5 (10A)  

NPG Album 1913-15, p. 92B

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 104: Gwladys Chaplin June 3rd 1915.

Private Collection

The artist’s correspondence reveals that de László was introduced to Mrs Chaplin by her sister-in-law Lady Edith Castlereagh, née Chaplin, who took her to his studio in November 1914. Viscountess Castlereagh – who became the 7th Marchioness of Londonderry in 1915 when her husband Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart succeeded his father – was already an important patron of de László’s. The artist had made a striking three-quarter length portrait of her in 1913 [6142], and by 1915, he had also painted her husband [6147], her son [6152], and her mother-in-law [6128]. The Londonderry family would commission many more portraits over the next twelve years. It was therefore natural that Edith Castlereagh introduced her brother’s wife to the artist. In a letter to de László dated 25 November 1914, she told him that Eric Chaplin, who was then fighting in the First World War with the Queen’s Own Staffordshire Yeomanry, was very keen to commission a portrait of his wife: “My brother is most anxious for you to paint her and I should like to talk to you when I see you. She really is a lovely creature, and I do hope it will be possible for her to be included in your exhibition, you must refuse all the rich ugly ones!!! And the year after you can have ‘a chamber of horrors!’”^[1]

The present portrait, for which sittings took place in June 1915, was not exhibited by de László until 1924, when it was given a place of honour at one of his most prestigious one-man exhibitions, at the French Gallery in Pall Mall. De László preferred to choose the dresses and jewels his models wore for their sittings, often draping his own fabrics on the sitters, or using his studio props in order to produce the desired effect. He lent Gwladys Wilson a long row of pearls, which according to one of her descendants, she greatly disliked. The artist did not relent, but compromised, the necklace being held rather than worn by Gwladys, who was eventually delighted with her portrait.

The Honourable Gwladys Alice Gertrude Wilson was born 25 June 1881, the fourth daughter of Charles Henry Wilson, 1st Baron Nunburnholme, and his wife Florence Jane Helen Wellesley. On 3 August 1905 at Warter Priory in York, she married Eric Chaplin (1877-1949), the only son of Henry 1st Viscount Chaplin and Lady Florence Leveson-Gower, who tragically died while giving birth to her second child. In London, Eric and Gwladys made their home at 23 Chelsea Square, SW. They had two sons, Anthony (born 1906), who succeeded his father in 1949 as 3rd Viscount Chaplin, and the Honourable Niall Greville Chaplin (born 1908). Gwladys became the 2nd Viscountess Chaplin in 1923, when her husband succeeded his father. She died in 1971, aged 90.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Christie’s, 7 June 2007, lot 68;

Richard Green, London;

Private Collection

EXHIBITED:          

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1924, no. 1

•Richard Green Fine Paintings, London, British and European Portraiture 1600-1930, from 5 June 2013, no. 30

LITERATURE:

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 135

•Morris, Susan, and Boyd, Rachel, British and European Portraiture 1600-1930 (Exhibition Catalogue), Richard Green, London, 2013, pp. 114-117, ill. p. 115 and 117 (detail)

•Morris, Susan, and Hall, Rachel Boyd, A Flair for Fashion: Society Portraits 1888-1944 (Exhibition Catalogue), Richard Green, London, 2017, p. 2, ill.

•DLA061-0070, letter from Viscountess Castlereagh, 25 November 1914   

CC 2008