5707

Robert Lewin Hunter 1932

Head and shoulders, slightly to the left, full face to the viewer, wearing a brown jacket and waistcoat, a dark blue tie and cream shirt

Oil on canvas, 85.8 x 69.9 cm (33 ¾ x 27 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1932 XI   

Laib L18162(238) / C13(10): Mr Hunter

Laib L17810(484) / C29(26): Sir ? Young

NPG Album 1932, p. 10: Robert Hunter Young

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 74:  Robert L. Hunter Nov. 14th 1932

Private Collection

Robert Hunter purchased a blank canvas donated by de László to a charity auction to benefit the Society of Housing Scheme in 1931. The delay in the portrait’s completion is partly accounted for by de László’s extended visit to America during the winter of 1931-2. He painted President Hoover [5787] and his wife [5789] at the White House in Washington, D.C. as well as four members of the Houghton family [5807] and six of the Firestone family [110649], before his return to England in April 1932.

Robert Lewin Hunter was born 12 March 1852 in Brunswick Square, the son of Richard Hunter (1806-1886), a solicitor, and his wife Caroline Ruck (1819-1874). He was educated at Winchester and Brasenose College, Oxford. He qualified as a solicitor in 1877, and on 7 June that year at St Mary’s, Wimbledon, he married Mary Devas, daughter of  Thomas Devas of Mount Ararat, Wimbledon. There were six children of the marriage: Robert (born 1878), Caroline (born 1880), Kenneth (born 1881), Evelyn (born 1884), Richard Jocelyn (born 1886), Richard Devas (born 1889) and Hugh (born 1891). Hunter lost two sons in France during the First World War. Hugh served as a Lieutenant with the Wiltshire Regiment and was killed 6 April 1915. Richard Jocelyn was a Captain in the 5th Battalion London Rifles Brigade and died of injuries 25 August 1918. Richard Devas was highly decorated, achieving the rank of Major and receiving a DSO and bar as well as the Order of Leopold, Military Cross, Belgium’s highest honour.

Hunter’s first wife died 7 January 1916. In 1917 he married Margaret Montgomery Carlisle, the  daughter of The Right Honourable A.M. Carlisle. After her death in 1926 he married, in 1933, The Honourable Elaine Augusta Villiers, daughter of 1st Baron Wimborne. She was painted by de László in 1935 [5709]. 

The sitter died 16 May 1942 and is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery.

PROVENANCE:

Kenneth Hunter, son of the sitter;

Lady Munro, granddaughter of the sitter

LITERATURE:

•László, Philip de, 1933 diary, private collection, 15 November entry, p. 17

•László, Philip de, 1935 diary, private collection, 17 April entry, p. 91

•DLA026-0295, letter from the Marchioness of Aberdeen & Temair to de László

KF 2019