4734

Viscountess Grimston and her son, James Brabazon Grimston, as Venus and Cupid 1919

Standing full-length, dressed in classical robes with a diadem in her hair; her son, James Brabazon Grimston, aged nine, standing below firing a bow and arrow, dressed in a tunic with a gold band around his head, a fluted column and cloudy sky beyond

Oil on canvas, 257.8 x 153.7 cm (101 ½ x 60 ¼ in.)

Inscribed top left: Study by de László 1919 

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 14: Violet Grimston / Mar. 16 1920

The Gorhambury Estates Company

Lady Violet Grimston wrote in her diary of the first time she saw de László’s work, at the 1913 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, where the artist exhibited a portrait of Lord Cavan [4037].^[1] She expressed her wish to have her portrait painted, but added that there were no portrait painters she admired sufficiently for her to commission: “At this time there were, to my mind no painters in England who could do justice to women. Sargent, Shannon, Lavery, Orpen and Augustus John were the best known, but one and all in their different way failed to present women successfully… It was therefore a great pleasure to me to find a painter of women in László,^[2] and I made up my mind that as soon as Jim and I had got together the wherewithal to pay for a portrait I would go to Hungary or wherever else László was to be found, to be painted.”^[3]

She later described her sittings to the artist: “I took off my hat at his request and he studied me from every angle, finally saying that I ought to be painted in some classic dress and pose.” De László lent his sitter a book on Italian Art which contained the reproduction of a Greek dress, after which she had a costume made by Clarkson’s.^[4]  De László’s method was as follows: “The first sittings for the portrait of Jim and me in classic dress were in November 1919 when he did two preliminary sketches in oils giving a rough idea of pose and colour.^[5] Having decided on these points he started on the big canvas, sketching in the rough outline with a brush and using a plumb line and measuring Jim and me with his mahlstick in order that we should be exactly life size… As I came to know him better I realised that he was that impatient of alteration, and always afraid of losing the freshness of prima painting. […] In the Greek painting he had to make one or two alterations of pose, repainting Jim’s left arm among other details. I believe that this rather extended work on the picture sowed doubts in his mind as to whether it was really successful work, for as soon as the two figures were finished he began planning a work to present to me in case I subsequently got tired of the classic picture.”^[6]

De László’s relative dissatisfaction described by the sitter could explain why he inscribed the canvas “study by de László”, without signing it. A letter from Lady Grimston dated 8 March 1921 reveals that the artist let the sitter’s family have the painting, but that he eventually left it unfinished: “I was afraid it would not be sufficiently finished to look well among finished pictures. Far from being so, you have put so much work into it that no doubt anyone’s knowing it was unfinished if they were not told so.”^[7]

This unusual double portrait is particularly significant in the sense that it was a fresh challenge for the artist, a different approach to portraiture in which he painted his sitters in the context of a grand, life-size mythological piece. However, one has to consider that this ambitious painting was executed a very short time after the artist was released from his internment, and that de László may eventually have felt slightly tentative about fulfilling his design. According to Lady Violet, the artist was full of imagination and enthusiasm about his new project, but lacked the firmness of hand and self-assurance that so characterised his trademark portraits, such as the one that he made of her in 1920 [4735].^[8] This huge painting was an unusually large undertaking, with Lady Violet and her son posing for sixteen days, which was substantially more than the average number of sittings that de László usually required. The artist put his painting to one side whilst the frame was made and returned to it so that he could paint the background with the canvas in the frame.^[9] The artist made a preparatory oil study of Lady Violet [4741] and her son [10593] before starting work on the finished picture.

Lady Violet Grimston stands with her eldest son, James, who holds a bow and arrow, suggesting they are in the guise of Venus and Cupid. A contemporary photograph shows the artist at work, palette in hand, standing before the life-sized canvas and it appears that the de László originally envisaged the composition to include branches of foliage protruding from behind the pillar to the right. The artist eventually painted over it, perhaps because he thought that it deflected from the boldness and clarity that traditionally characterises neo-classicism.

In 1936, the artist visited Lady Verulam at Gorhambury and reflected on the portrait in his diary: “it is a very unusual work of mine – & looks – if yesterday finished – I am proud of its perfect drawing & values – but it should have more romanticisme [sic] – in its surroundings…were the first sittings – sitters – after my Court – in 20” 1920 – she is one of the most intelligent companion[s] –amongst woman – of classic beauty – I ever had.”^[10]

Lady Violet Constance Maitland Brabazon was born on 26 September 1886 at Bray, Co. Wicklow, the younger daughter of the 12th Earl of Meath and his wife Lady Mary Jane Maitland. She spent her early life at Ottershaw, Surrey, and at Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow, and was educated at St. Margaret’s School, Folkestone. On 27 October 1909 she married James Walter Grimston, later the 4th Earl of Verulam. Together they had four sons: James (born 1910), John (born 1912), Brian (born 1914) and Bruce David (born 1915). Lady Violet was very strong and energetic, she was a fine hockey player in her youth. When war broke out in 1914, she became a Member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment with the British Red Cross, nursing at Bricket House, St. Albans until 1917. She also did a lot of charity work. She raised funds for a crèche and Infant Welfare Centre in Shoreditch and was closely associated with The Ministering Children’s League, a charity founded by her mother the Countess of Meath in 1884. She was also part of the Wives’ Fellowship Organisation in Hertfordshire, and for some years President of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. However, in peacetime her greatest interest certainly lay in cataloguing the Gorhambury collection of portraits, manuscripts, books and family documents: some six thousand items, which took her several years to complete.  She deposited her work with the newly created Hertfordshire Record Office in 1928.   Lady Violet exerted her maternal strength to keep her family together when family’s circumstances deteriorated. She was instrumental in moving her household to two flats in Hampstead Garden Suburb from 1929 until 1936, when they moved back to Gorhambury. She died suddenly of blood poisoning a few months later, on 21 July 1936. She was buried in the family vault.

The closing paragraph of her obituary in The Times on 29 July 1936 described her portraits by de László: “In his three paintings of Lady Verulam, László has portrayed her unusual and classic beauty in all its strength and sweetness, and thus is left to her family and friends a lasting remembrance of this ‘valiant woman’ of whom it could be truly said, ‘She hath opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue.’”^[11]

Born on 13 October 1910, James Brabazon Grimston, the eldest son of the 4th Earl of Verulam and his wife, the former Lady Violet Brabazon, was educated at Eton college, where he was an oarsman, winner of the School Steeplechase in 1929, and four times winner of the Jelf Latin Verse Prize. He read Zoology at Christ Church Oxford. In the long vacation of 1931 he took part in a geological field course off the Gower peninsula and went on to take part in a work-camp organised by Pierre Ceresole, leader of the International Voluntary Service for Peace at Brynmawr. During his University career he visited over 151 factories, which prefaced his successful career as an industrialist, initially with Enfield Zinc Products Ltd and later with Enfield Cables Ltd and Enfield Rolling Mills Ltd which were family enterprises. Before nationalisation he was president of his local hospital and later resident of St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. During the war he established a rest home for Enfield workers and their families at Old Lye House, Bricket Wood. From 1945-1960 he toured the world in search of orders for the family businesses. He succeeded his father in 1949, as 5th Earl of Verulam and was willing to be associated with many different organisations. He secured a substantial sum of money from the Historic Buildings Council in 1956 to reface the facades of the family home at Gorhambury, St. Albans. From 1931-1960, he communicated with Fraulein Clärly Knuchel, who was also instrumental in the International Voluntary Service, and left a legacy of 1500 letters. His archive contained a vast correspondence with the many organisations with which he was associated. His recreations were swimming, languages, farming, photography.

He died two days after his fiftieth birthday in 1960 at Gorhambury from cancer. His ashes buried in the family vault at St. Michael’s church, St. Albans. He was succeeded by his brother John Grimston, but left the bulk of his estate to his nephew, John Duncan Grimston, later 7th Earl of Verulam.

LITERATURE:        

•Grimston, Violet, Viscountess Notes on my sittings to Mr de László, The Gorhambury Collection Archives, November-December 1919

•László, Philip de, March-July 1936 diary, private collection, 11 June entry, p. 112; 14 June entry, pp. 115-116

•The Times, 29 July 1936

•DLA069-0179, telegram from Viscount Grimston to de László 31December 1919

•DLA069-0178, partial letter from Violet Grimston to de László, undated

•DLA069-0176, letter from Viscountess Grimston to de László, 4 March 1920

•DLA069-0177, letter from Viscountess Grimston to de László, 8 March 1921

We are grateful to John Cox, the Archivist at Gorhambury, for his biographies.

CC 2008