6161

Doctor Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury 1932

Three-quarter length seated on a fine green upholstered chair with gold carved finial, wearing full archiepiscopal robes and two gold chains, one with a decorative cross, the other a knighthood decoration, holding a book in his right hand, both arms resting on the arms of the chair

Oil on canvas, 165.8 x 108.6 cm (65 ¼ x 42 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / Lambeth Palace 1932 

Inscribed upper left: COSMO / ARCHIEPS / CANTUAR [with a coat of arms above]

Laib L18785 (492) / C4 (11) Archbishop of Canterbury

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 73: Cosmo Cantuar: June 29. 1932

Corporation of the Church House, Westminster

De László painted Archbishop Lang’s predecessor Randall Davidson in 1926 [4632],^[1] producing one of the most flamboyant British ecclesiastical portraits of all time. The present portrait of Archbishop Lang is far stronger, if more modest in scale, with a composition surprisingly reminiscent of de László’s celebrated portrait of Cardinal Rampolla [4511], although the two clerics could hardly have been more different in character. The present portrait was commissioned by Church House, where it has remained ever since. During the same sittings, de László painted a head-and-shoulders portrait of the sitter, which he may have offered to him as a souvenir, but that portrait remains untraced [6165].

The portrait of the Archbishop was unveiled at a ceremony at which the artist and his wife were present at Church House on 29 November 1932, by Lord Selborne, whose 1931 portrait by de László [7063], along with that of Mr Frederick White [11347] (also painted in 1931), also hung at Church House, in addition to that of Randall Davidson mentioned above. The Archbishop drew laughter from those present at the ceremony when he remarked on the portrait that “it was not for him to judge its merits, but Mr. de László had done something which many distinguished painters were prevented by their genius from enabling their subjects to do. He could recognize himself.” He also noted that “the Church House was becoming a de László gallery, and he only wished that the premises were more worthy of the pictures.”^[2]

After painting the present portrait, which he completed in July 1932, de László intended to devote himself to his “War Picture,”^[3] a large canvas he planned to illustrate the suffering of women during the First World War. However, although he made many studies for this, he never even started the large canvas he envisaged as he was in continuous demand from patrons and friends to paint their likenesses and was to spend the last four years of his life inundated with commissions. Even his doctor, Lord Dawson of Penn, was on one hand telling him to rest and on the other commissioning his own portrait [4651].

De László painted the Archbishop again the following year, for Balliol College, Oxford [6164], and made a third portrait of him in 1937, wearing his robes for the coronation of George VI [6171]. ^[4]

Cosmo Gordon Lang was born in Aberdeen in 1864, the son of the Very Rev. John Marshall Lang, D.D., C.V.O, who was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The sitter was educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford: a Scholar in 1882. Ambitious for a career as a barrister or in politics, he was a student of the Inner Temple from 1883 until 1889, but then felt he was called to be a priest and followed this path instead. He was ordained in 1890 and became Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford, Bishop of Stepney and Canon of St. Paul’s in 1901, Archbishop of York in 1908 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1928.

During his primacy, his brother became Moderator of the Church of Scotland – a ‘double’ which is unlikely ever to be repeated. On retiring from Canterbury in 1942, he was created Baron Lang of Lambeth. A man of wide interests, his Anglo-Catholic and liberal views were accepted by most parties in the Church of England. He was friend and counsellor to the royal family and it is said that he played an important role in the abdication crisis of 1936. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Lang gave the blessing at de László’s memorial service held at St. Margaret’s, Westminster on 26 November 1937. He died unmarried on 5 December 1945.

EXHIBITED:        

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September 1932, no. 55

•M. Knoedler & Co., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., Loan Exhibition held in aid of The Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, 21 June-22 July 1933, no. 24, ill.

•Christie’s King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 122  

LITERATURE:

•The Times, 19 September 1932

•“New Portrait for Church House,” The New York Times, 13 November 1932

•The Times, 30 November 1932, p. 9

•The Times, Nov. 30, 1932, ill. p. 16

•The Illustrated London News, Saturday 3 December 1932, ill. front cover

•M. Knoedler & Company, inc. Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O: Loan Exhibition Held in Aid of the Artist’s General Benevolent Institution, London: Strangeways, 1933, p. 17, ill.

•Bury, Adrian, “The Art of Philip de László: An Appreciation,” Apollo, July 1933, p. 16

•The Spectator, 4 July 1933

•“Portraits by the Celebrated Painter P.A. de László, from his Recent Exhibition at Knoedler’s Galleries,” The Studio, Vol. CVI, no 986 (September 1933)[also published in The London Studio, Vol. VI, no. 30 (September 1933), p. 148]

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 373, 378

•Vickers, Hugo, Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Hutchinson, London, 2005, pp. 119-20, ill. pp. 196-7

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, pp. 186-7

•Vickers, Hugo, “So Many Portraits, So Many Friends,” Country Life, Jan. 1, 2004, ill. p. 56

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 243

•DLA018-0079, letter from de László to Louis Wiley, 25 July 1932

•DLA 1933 parcel, László Fülöp mesterművei a Pesti Hírlap Vasárnapjában, ill.

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection, 4 April entry, p. 98

•DLA162-0360, Pesti Hírlap, 21 October 1932, p. 5

•DLA135-0002, letter from de László to Marczell László, 18 December 1932

•László, Philip de, 1933 diary, private collection, 15 November entry, p. 16

CWS  & CC 2008