2326

Preparatory drawing

Mrs Stanley Baldwin, née Lucy Ridsdale 1935

Seated three-quarter length to the left, head turned and looking to the left, wearing a dark evening dress, necklace, and tiara

Blue chalk heightened with white on grey card, 35.3 x 24.1 cm (14 x 9 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: Mrs. Baldwin

Inscribed verso top left: 294 [black ink]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 85: Lucy Baldwin 20 - 12 - 35

Studio Inventory p. 160 (294): A further Study of Countess Baldwin. See Note 292 [Then Mrs. Baldwin, wife of the Right Hon. Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister.]

Private Collection

De László painted a formal three-quarter length portrait of the sitter in 1936 [2324], for which this is a preparatory sketch. A second drawing [112312] is listed in the Studio Inventory but currently untraced and no visual record survives. The artist visited the sitter 16 December at home at 10 Downing Street and it is possible that this drawing was executed there.  

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [2324].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death

KF 2017