12462

The Right Honourable James Lowther 1907

Head and shoulders slightly right, full face to the viewer and looking left, wearing robes and wig of the Speaker of the House of Commons

Oil on board, 78.7 x 52.1 cm (31 x 20 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: To Mrs Lowther / 1907 XII / P.A.László / Hutton John

Sitters’ Book I , opp. f. 79: James W. Lowther / Hutton John Penrith / Dec 18/07

The Treasurer and Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple

In December 1907 de László travelled to Hutton John, the sitter’s home near Penrith, where he painted this study portrait as a gift for Lowther’s wife, probably as a token of his appreciation for her hospitality. The artist was commissioned to paint a formal three-quarter length portrait of Lowther [10209] for the Grand Jury Room of the Courts in Carlisle and this was completed in a series of sittings in de László’s London studio in May and June 1908. He also painted a preparatory oil study [13338] for the formal portrait, which remained in his studio until his death.  

Lucy de László wrote in her diary in April 1908 that she and de László were invited to lunch by Lowther and his wife to meet Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), Prime Minister of France during the First World War. Others present included Lady Asquith and Sir Edward Grey. Mrs Lowther informed them that Queen Alexandra [7707] and her sister Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia admired the present portrait.^[1]

The portrait hung in the Palace of Westminster during Lowther’s term as Speaker of the House of Commons 1905-21 and was mentioned by Lowther’s secretary in a letter to de László in 1913: “I constantly gorge with delight upon the sketch you made of the speaker and gave to Mrs. Lowther.  I am the Speaker’s secretary and therefore every time I lunch with him I have the pleasure of looking at this portrait of my chief.”^[2]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [10209].

EXHIBITED:

Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 38, ill.

LITERATURE:

•Schleínítz, Otto von,  Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1913, p.106 

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1939, p. 247

•Owen, Hugh, The Lowther Family, Sussex, 1990, ill. p. 398, pl. 99        

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2004

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 270

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 127, ill. p. 109

•László, Lucy de, 1908 diary, 29 April entry, p. 144

•DLA003-0040, letter from the Honourable Edward Cadogan to de László, 7 July 1913  

KF 2020