13703

Ursula Mary Rimington Bowlby 1923

Head and shoulders to the right, head turned full face to the viewer and looking slightly to the left, wearing a white shirt and a red ribbon in her hair

Oil on board, 53.3 x 45.7 cm (21 x 18 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1923

Private Collection

This portrait was painted during the Bowlby family’s stay with de László at their home at 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, London.^[1] The families were very close and it was a characteristic gesture of the artist to present his friends with portraits of themselves or their children. Ursula’s brother David [13702] was also painted as a souvenir during the artist’s visit to their Scottish estate Knoydart, Invernessshire in 1915. While there he also painted a number of landscape studies [4307][3625][112672][3630].

The sitter’s mother Catherine was the first member of the family to be painted in 1914 [2880][2882] and the artist made a portrait drawing of her in 1915 [2505] while he painted her husband Arthur Salvin Bowlby in hunting dress at Gilston Park in July 1915.

Ursula Bowlby was born on 1 March 1909 at Gilston Park, Harlow, the daughter of Arthur Salvin Bowlby (1872-1932) and his wife Catherine Mary Bond (1878-1943). She never married but lived with her mother until the latter’s death in 1943. Shen then moved to Suffolk where she farmed and raised Jersey cows. Other interests included music, painting in watercolour, gardening and racing.  

She died on 7 March 1992 at Little Saxes Farm, Stanningfield, Bury St Edmunds and was buried at St Mary’s Church, Gilston, where her brother David was also buried.

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923

LITERATURE:

•DLA123-0267, letter from Lucy de László to Paul de Laszlo, 9 February 1923  

KF 2022