110596
UNTRACED
Study portrait
Mrs Wyllys Rossiter Betts Jr, née Constance McCann 1932
Half-length slightly to the right, head turned full face to the viewer, wearing a dark coloured dress with a brooch at her chest, her left hand raised to her shoulder
Oil [support and dimensions unknown]
Inscribed lower left: de László / N.Y. 1932. II.
Juley negative PPJ-58563
Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 72: Constance McC. Betts Feb 19th 1932
De László was much in demand during his fourth visit to America, which took place between late 1931 and early 1932. A review by the Wall Street Journal of an exhibition of his work in October 1933 at the Knoedler Gallery, New York, noted that he was so popular that he was unable to fulfill the many requests for portraits.[1] Constance McCann and her sister Helena [110597] were both painted in 1932, while their father [111414] and mother [110594] were painted when de László visited America again in 1933/34. Mrs McCann was also painted in London in 1936 [6390] [6393].
Constance Woolworth McCann was born 7 November 1905 in New York, daughter of Charles E. F. McCann (1875-1941) and Helena Maud Woolworth (1878-1938), granddaughter of F. W. Woolworth, founder of Woolworth’s stores. She was educated at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, and spent a year at a finishing school in Paris. On her return, she made her formal debut in New York society and became a member of the Junior League.
On 19 October 1926 she married Wyllys Rossiter Betts Jr (1900-1966) at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. He converted to her Catholic faith before the wedding.[2] Betts worked as a stockbroker before becoming director of the Museum of Natural History, New York.[3] There were three children of the marriage: Phyllis (born 1928), Wyllys (born 1933) and Charles (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1939 and in June 1943, at the home of her sister Helena, Constance was remarried to Joseph V. McMullan. He was a collector and lecturer on Near Eastern art and an authority on Islamic carpets, of which he had a world-famous collection. They spent their honeymoon at Beauport, Gloucester, Massachusetts and lived at 166 E. 66th St., New York.[4]
Joseph McMullan died in 1973 and the sitter survived him until 11 August 1981.
Constance was also painted by de László’s contemporary and fellow Hungarian Artúr Lajos Halmi (1866-1939).[5]
EXHIBITED:
•M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 16-18 October 1933, no. 2
LITERATURE:
•Art News, Vol. 32 (21 October 1933), p. 6
•The New York Times, 25 October 1933, p. 17
•DLA103-0020, The Wall Street Journal, 25 October 1933
MD & KF 2021
[1] DLA103-0020, The Wall Street Journal, 25 October 1933
[2] “Milestones,” Time, 17 May 1926; “Milestones,” Time, 1 November 1926
[3] Jean Maddern Pitrone, F. W. Woolworth and the American Five and Dime: A Social History, 2003, p. 75
[4] “Mrs. C. M. Betts Wed to Joseph M’Mullan,” The New York Times, 23 June 1943; “Joseph M’Mullan, Carpet Collector,” The New York Times, 4 June 1973
[5] Her portrait by Halmi was exhibited at the M. Jacques Seligman Galleries, New York, Loan Exhibition of the Society of the Art Patrons of America, 1924. See “Faces,” Time, Monday, Dec. 22, 1924. The author of the article describes her as “a slim girl with red hair.”