6855

Study portrait

Lady Diana Evelyn Percy 1928

Half length to the right, her head inclined to the left, wearing a pale coloured dress, her long Venetian blond hair falling over her shoulders

Oil on board, 59.7 x 49.6 cm (23 ½ x 19 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László / 1928 July   

Sitters’ Book II, f. 60: Diana Percy. July 30th 1928 

Private Collection

De László painted Lady Diana for the first time with her younger brother, Lord Richard Percy, in 1924 [6857]. This study portrait was made four years later, when she was eleven, during sittings for the large double portrait of her young brother Lord Geoffrey with their mother, the Duchess of Northumberland [6865]. In a letter to the artist, the Duchess wrote: “I must again thank you for Diana’s lovely portrait & your great kindness in giving it to us. Your picture of her adds another most beautiful treasure to our collection and it is a wonderful memento of the many happy sittings I spent with you for my large portrait with Geoffrey.”^[1]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6857].

LITERATURE:

•Catalogue of Paintings, compiled by the Eighth Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, 1930, n° 442, ill. pl. n° 3

•DLA077-0033, letter from the Duchess of Northumberland to de László, undated [c. 1928]

CC  2011