6832

CUT DOWN

Lady Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck 1916

Head and shoulders, semi-profile to the right, wearing a white organza stole over a blue dress, her left hand raised to hold a string of pearls round her neck

Oil on canvas, 66 x 58.5 cm (26 x 23 in.) [cut down from 87.6 x 64.8 cm (34 ½ x 25 ½ in.)]

Inscribed lower left: László / 1916 July  

Laib L7898 (789) / C2 (33A)  

NPG Album 1915-16, p. 101

Sitters’ Book II, f. 6: Victoria Bentinck  June 22nd 1916

Private Collection

In July 1916 de László and his wife Lucy were invited by the Duke of Portland [4442] to stay at Welbeck Abbey. The Duke was one of his most important English patrons and the house party included the sitter’s brother the Marquess of Titchfield [6821], the Countess of Minto [6343], comtesse Baillet Latour [4810] and Major Baker Carr [2703]. This portrait of Portland’s daughter was completed during the artist’s stay but may have been started in his London on 22 June, when she signed the Sitters’ Book.

The canvas was originally half-length but later cut down. It is noted in the Portland Catalogue of Pictures that the present portrait replaced one painted in 1911 [6827] and the latter was presented by the Portlands to de László and remained in his collection until his death. A miniature in watercolour was made from the present portrait in 1933 by V.V. Butler.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6827].

PROVENANCE:

In the artist’s studio on his death

EXHIBITED:          

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September, 1932, n° 20

•Goulding, Richard W. The Catalogue of Pictures. The Duke of Portland. Prepared by C. K. Adams, Cambridge University Press, 1936 (Private printing of 150 copies), n° 926

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck (6th Duke), Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, ill. between pp. 224 and 225

CC 2008