6835

Lord Francis Morven Dallas Cavendish-Bentinck 1912

Head and shoulders to the left, wearing the uniform of a Lower Boy at Eton College, black gown of a King’s Scholar

Oil on canvas board, 51.1 x 41.1 cm (19 ½  x 15 ¾ in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: László v. Lombos, Langwell, 1912, IX. 

Private Collection

The present portrait was painted in September 1912 at Langwell, the Scottish estate of the 6th Duke of Portland, just as the sitter was going to Eton for the first time. Earlier that year, de László had painted two portraits of the Duke of Portland [4442] & [4443], as well as two portraits of the Duchess of Portland at Welbeck [4411] & [4417]. It was while staying there that de László, in March 1912, was ennobled by the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and became “László de Lombos.” The artist soon chose to style himself “de László” instead, but he signed a few canvases using his full title in 1912, as seen here.

Recalling the beginning of his friendship with de László, the Duke later recorded in his memoirs: “de László subsequently paid us a visit at Langwell - where, incidentally, he went deerstalking and was terribly bitten by midges - and there he painted a portrait of my second son, Morven, as a schoolboy.”^[1]

Francis Morven Dallas Cavendish-Bentinck was born on 27 July 1900 at Langwell, the second son of the 6th Duke of Portland and his wife Winifred, née Dallas-Yorke. The name Morven, by which he was always known, is that of the highest mountain in Caithness, on the Langwell estate.

Educated at Eton, to which he won a scholarship, and at Christ Church, Oxford, his great passion in life was music. He was a talented pianist and gave recitals in various parts of the country. In 1932 he became a professional musician. During the Second World War, he served as a Flight Lieutenant in the R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve, following in the footsteps of his father and elder brother, who both had accomplished careers in the Army. However, as soon as the war was over, he returned to his music. He was President of the Mansfield and District Music Club, and Chairman of the Nottingham Branch of Alliance Assurance Ltd. Lord Morven died at Welbeck Abbey on 22 August 1950, aged fifty, after a long illness. He was unmarried.

EXHIBITED:         

•Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, On Behalf of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution.  Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, M.V.O., June-July 1913, nº 13

LITERATURE:          

•Portland, William Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck (6th Duke), Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, p. 221 and ill. between pp. 224 and 225

•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 943

CC  2008