6945

Baron Bruno von Schröder 1911

Standing three-quarter length to the right in three-quarter profile, wearing a black overcoat over a black suit and waistcoat with a wing collar, holding his brown gloves and a cane in his right hand and a top hat in his left

Oil on canvas, 129.5 x 91.5 cm (51 x 36 in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. László / 1911. II. 

NPG Album 1912-1916, p. 15, where labelled Von Schröder / Hamburg/1912

Sitters’ Book I, f. 47: Bruno v. Schröder 8. Februar 1911.

Private Collection

In 1909 de László painted an almost full-length portrait of Baron Bruno von Schröder’s wife, Emma [6942], and a deep friendship developed between the two families. As Emma von Schröder later recalled, the present portrait was painted as a surprise for her, “but we have never really cared for it. He is shown in an overcoat, wearing flowers in his buttonhole – a thing he would never do – and I always think that he looks like a ‘usurer’ – very stern and with no trace of his good humour and great kindness.”^[1] Nevertheless, the portrait is remarkable for de László’s flamboyant use of ultramarine blue, not only in the controversial buttonhole, but also to enhance the dark tones in the composition. He used this technique in several other portraits of 1910/11, for example that of Elizabeth Guinness [5428] and the study of Lord Selborne [7055], and later in 1911 his portrait of the Baroness de Baeyens reveals his particular delight in the colour itself [2825].

In 1916 Emma von Schröder considered having de László lengthen the portrait of her husband, “first to make it a companion to mine and secondly to give the impression of his length.”^[2] Possibly she was hoping that de László would also be able to soften the expression, but nearly six years had elapsed since the portrait was made and Bruno Schröder had aged considerably in the meantime, so the idea was abandoned and in 1917 de László made a new portrait as a pendant to Emma’s [6972].

Rudolph Bruno Schröder was born in Hamburg on 14 March 1867, the eighth of nine children (and second surviving son, an older brother having died in infancy) of Johann Rudolph Schröder (1821-1887) and his wife Clara, his second cousin, née Schröder (1829-1910). In 1846 his father, together with his older brother Bernhard (who that year married Clara’s sister), had set up in Hamburg a trading house, Gebrüder Schröder, which later developed into a merchant bank and it was there that Bruno began his career in 1888.

Bruno’s maternal grandfather, Johann Heinrich Schröder, had established his own merchant bank, J. Henry Schröder & Co., in London in 1818 and, having done three years as an unpaid apprentice there, in 1893 Bruno was invited by his childless uncle, Baron Sir Henry Schröder,^[3] to join the London firm. The following year, on 5 April, he married Emma Deichmann (1870-1940), the daughter of the senior partner of the Cologne banking house Deichmann & Co. In 1895 he became a partner of J. Henry Schröder & Co. and in 1909 succeeded his uncle as senior partner. On Sir Henry Schröder’s death a year later Bruno also inherited his estate, The Dell, neighbouring Bruno’s own property, Heath Lodge, which he had bought in 1900. Having rebuilt Heath Lodge, he renamed the estate Dell Park.

With his deep understanding of business and his unquestionable integrity he soon gained a reputation as an outstanding banker and confirmed the position of the firm as one of the City’s leading merchant banks. In the words of the DNB: “Schröder’s personality inspired faith in his judgement and dependability. He was quiet and sober in manner, but possessed of such dignity and authority that his very presence commanded respect.”^[4] 

Despite establishing his family so firmly in England, Bruno Schröder kept a house in Hamburg which he used every summer, and maintained strong links with Germany, especially with the extended Schröder family. He continued to support charities set up by his uncle for the benefit of destitute Germans living in England, as well as a number of charitable organisations in Germany. In 1904 he was made a Freiherr (Baron) by the German Emperor for this work and a year later, together with other Anglo-German financiers including Sir Ernest Cassel [3977], set up the Anglo-German Union Club. With the outbreak of war in August 1914 the Governor of the Bank of England expressed fears that J. Henry Schröder & Co. would be seized as enemy property, and to prevent this, the Home Secretary granted Bruno Schröder a certificate of naturalisation on 7 August 1914. Nevertheless throughout the war there were calls for Bruno Schröder’s internment and the fact that his eldest son was serving in the German army and even his charitable work in Germany were cited as examples of his disloyalty. His son’s death in Russia in 1915 was a terrible blow to the family already suffering much from abuse and threats.

The period of massive inflation and Bruno Schröder’s close connections with German and Central European banks created new opportunities for Schröders after the war. Bruno was instrumental in the reestablishment of the creditworthiness of the Deutsche Bank and was appointed to the board of the Österreichische Boden-Creditanstalt in Vienna. In 1923 he, together with his partner at Schröders, Henry Tiarks, set up a New York bank, the J. Henry Schröder Banking Corporation. His son, Helmut, joined the partnership of the London firm in 1926, the year Bruno commissioned de László to paint a third portrait of him for the boardroom at Schröders [6976].

Throughout the 1930s he played a less active role in the running of the bank, while remaining senior partner, preferring to devote himself to his hobbies of gardening (especially orchids), shooting and his art collection. He died at Dell Park on 10 December 1940 while England and Germany were once again at war.

LITERATURE:        

•Schröder, Baroness Emma von, Description of Dell Park, 1934-7, unpublished

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 132-133

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, pp. 135, 202, 230

•DLA066-0073/74, letter from Emma von Schröder to de László, 8 July 1910

•DLA066-0077, letter from Emma von Schröder to de László, 18 April 1911

•DLA068-0126, letter from Emma von Schröder to de László, 21  December 1916

•DLA066-0066, letter from Bruno von Schröder to de László, 28 February 1910

•DLA017-0085, letter from Bruno von Schröder to de László, 16 October 1930

•László, Lucy de, 1911 diary, p. 187

CWS 2008