6741

Cécile Elizabeth Florence Rankin 1937

Seated three-quarter length to the right on a gilt Bergère chair, wearing a white gown with wide puffed sleeves and a large pale blue sash at the waist, drop earrings and a diamond bracelet on her right wrist which is draped over the arm of the chair, her left arm resting on the other arm of the chair, a small table with a glass bowl of blue irises upon it to the right

Oil on canvas, 152.5 x 102 cm (60 x 41 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1937. VI.   

Laib L16550L(289) / C23(32)  

NPG Album 1936-37, p. 21

Sitters’ Book, II, f. 87: Cécile E.F. Rankin 21-5-37

Private Collection

This is one of the last pictures completed by the artist before his death 22 November 1937. It was commissioned as a gift by the sitter’s father to celebrate her wedding. Several sittings took place in the artist’s studio in May of that year. Eleven previous sittings had been cancelled in April and May owing to the artist’s ongoing heart problems. De László produced four related preparatory works, a charcoal sketch in what was to be his last sketchbook [111592], a sketch in black pastel [10914], one in graphite [6742], and an oil sketch [112165], all of which remained in his possession on his death. The artist also presented the sitter with a finished portrait drawing as a gift in honour of her marriage [6736].

Cécile Elizabeth Florence was born near Liverpool on 3 May 1914, the youngest daughter of Sir Robert Rankin (1877-1961) and his wife Renée Baker (died 1932). Her father was a Conservative M.P. and was created a Baron in 1937 for his services to the City of Liverpool. The family travelled widely when the sitter was young, including visits to Chile and Montreal, Canada. She was educated in England and Switzerland, was fluent in French and Italian, and a keen skier and tennis player.

On 1 September 1937 Cécile married John Grandy, a junior officer in the Royal Air Force, and had two sons, John (born 1947) and William (born 1948). During the Second World War she served as an ambulance and senior staff officer driver while her husband distinguished himself as the commander of No.249 Hurricane Squadron, one of Fighter Command’s most successful during the Battle of Britain.

John Grandy was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath in 1967. He retired as Marshal of The Royal Air Force in 1971. In 1973 he and Lady Grandy became active in diplomatic circles as a result of his posting as Governor of Gibraltar. His final appointment before full retirement was as Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle, 1979-1989. Lady Grandy died on 13 September 1993, aged seventy-nine; her husband survived her until 2004.

The sitter was also painted as a young girl by Sir Alfred Munnings, with her mother and sister at the family seat of Broughton Towers, near Furness in Lancashire. That portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1922.^[1]

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Sold Bonham’s, 30 May 2012, lot 26;

Sold Christie's Paris, 13 September 2017, lot 260;

Richard Green Gallery

LITERATURE:

•Silver, Rachel, and Brandenburger, Caroline, Establishment Wives, 1989, p. 167

KF 2012