9769

Mrs Herbert Asquith, née Margaret Tennant 1909

Seated half-length in semi-profile to the left, wearing a large feathered hat, a blouse with a frilled neck and a stole

Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 71.1 cm (36 x 28 in.)

Inscribed lower right: P. A. László / 1909.   

Laib L2466 (289) / C1 (36):  Mrs. Asquith

NPG 1903-14 Album, p. 60

NPG 1907-13 Album, p. 21

Sitters’ Book I, f. 80: Margot Asquith [among other signatures dated August 1908]

Parliamentary Art Collection, purchase supported by the Speaker's Art Fund

WOA 7214

This portrait of Margot Asquith was painted at the beginning of her husband’s tenure as Prime Minister. She approached the artist in June 1908, not long after the couple moved to 10 Downing Street, in the hope that he could paint a portrait of each of them: “If you make a very slight sketch of me I would love you to do my husband but I will be very honest – We are poor & spend every penny on entertaining & every sort of necessary duty. […] Make up your mind to make me plain but interesting & show my eyes wh have more meaning than my mouth wh is rather mixed & my nose was broken out hunting & is not so much a feature now as a limb!”^[1] In an undated letter, she also expressed her preference for de László’s study portraits rather than his ‘finished’ ones: she particularly admired Lord Wemyss’s, which the artist had just completed [7671].^[2] 

On 8 April 1909 in de László’s studio, Margot Asquith composed a letter to a friend, which she left behind.^[3] As well as making an outline sketch of her own portrait, she wrote: “I’m waiting for Laszlo. He has done a very clever study of me. […]. I’m so much easier to caricature than to characterize somehow - ! & having a full face like a profile as Heine said I’m no doubt a great waste for any artist to attempt – not quite pretty enough or ugly enough. I like sitting to him.”^[4] 

De László must have been particularly satisfied with her portrait as he exhibited it at the Walker Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition shortly after it was completed, and again at his important one-man show at Agnew’s in 1911. When the picture was delivered to Margot Asquith after the Liverpool exhibition, she wrote to the artist with characteristic enthusiasm: “Dear dear Mr László, I came here yesterday & found my beautiful picture. As you know I think it wonderfully clever & much more interesting than I am. The only people who have seen it admire it hugely. Sargent found (in the studio) the only fault that I ever did: that it gives an impression of a bigger face than mine. […] But my little affectation is that head sd be painted smaller than life. You have a great genius & are far the most understanding artist living & far the quickest.”^[5] Her words of appreciation were not sufficient for the artist to warm to her original plea, and he did not paint Herbert Asquith.

Margaret Emma Alice ‘Margot’ Tennant was born on 2 February 1864 at The Glen, Innerleithen, Peebleshire, the 6th of the eleven children of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Bt (1823-1906) and his first wife Emma Winsloe (1821-1895). She was educated at home. She attended finishing school in London, and spent five months studying German and music in Dresden. Riding was her passion from an early age and she excelled on the hunting field. Her broken nose and misshapen upper lip, the result of a riding accident, did not prevent her being popular on the social circuit. Although highly strung and quick-tempered according to her contemporaries, this well balanced her charm and unconventionality. She even inspired characters in novels: the heroine of E.F. Benson’s Dodo (1893) was most notably based on her. She was a prominent member of the intellectual circle known as the “Souls”, which also included Arthur Balfour [2707] and George Curzon [3890].

In 1890, she first met Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928). A year later, he was widowed, with five dependent children, aged one to thirteen. When he unexpectedly proposed to her, she remained indecisive for months, but finally accepted in 1894. The marriage took place on 10 May that year. Together they had five more children, but three of them died at birth, and only Elizabeth (born 1897) and Anthony (born 1902) survived. Margot Asquith’s buoyant character and her tendency to say the first thing that came into her head sharply contrasted with the reserved and controlled attitude of her step-family, which made relations very strained, especially with Raymond, Asquith’s eldest son, and Violet.

Margot Asquith had kept a diary since her childhood, but in 1904, she decided to record political events separately. Her husband became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1905, and in 1908 he succeeded Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister. The couple were criticised for their lavish lifestyle and she was accused of a corrupting influence on her husband. She spent vast amounts of money on fashion, and despite a generous allowance from her father and her husband being in high office, she once told Lord Rosebery that she had to earn money writing as a journalist. Intent on keeping the Liberals in power, she often interfered, giving her unsolicited opinion on political matters to George V, Kitchener and Churchill amongst others. When she attempted to dictate the contents of Lloyd George’s speeches [6076], the latter threatened to complain to her husband. Only then did she retract. She felt that her husband’s decision to make Lloyd George War Secretary in 1916 was a grave mistake, and when Asquith was forced out of the premiership by him in December of that year, she was incensed.

Facing the urgent need for income, she set about writing her autobiography, based on her diaries. The first volume was published in 1920. This caused the loss of some friends, such as Curzon, who could not get over her description of him. Her egotism and bluntness was cause for much criticism, but the publication was a success. In 1925, three years before his death, her husband was created 1st Earl of Oxford & Asquith. She continued to write regularly until she died, on 28 July 1945, aged eighty-one. She is buried in the churchyard at Sutton Courtenay churchyard, where she had had a home between 1911 and 1932.

PROVENANCE:

Sold by the sitter at Christie’s, London, 2 April 1943, lot 30, to a Mr Smith;

Sold at Christie’s, King Street, 15 December 2011, lot 33;

Purchased by Palace of Westminster Collection

EXHIBITED:

•Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Thirty-Ninth Autumn Exhibition, 20 September 1909-8 January 1910, no. 1014

•Agnew’s, London, Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, M.V.O., May-June 1911, no. 13

LITERATURE:

• Autumn Exhibition illustrated catalogue, Liverpool, ill. p.117: Mrs. Asquith. P.A. de László. 36 x 28

•“Society as Seen by a Hungarian Artist: László Portraits,” Illustrated London News, 27 May, 1911, p. 789, ill.

•Illustrated London News (New York Edition), 10 June 1911, p. 853, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 263, 267-68, 272

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 116-117, ill. p. 64

•The Times (London) Culture Magazine, 6 July 2014, p. 41, ill.

•Brock, Michael and Eleanor Brock ed., Margot Asquith’s Great War Diary 1914-1918, 2014, Oxford University Press, ill. cover

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 84

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 127, ill.

•DLA123-0141, letter from Margot Asquith to Philip de László, 26 June 1908

•DLA123-0009, letter from Margot Asquith to de László, 8 April 1909

•DLA123-0026, letter from Margot Asquith to de László, 30 March 1910

•László, Philip de, January-June 1935 diary, private collection, pasted on front cover, loose items: press cutting, Vogue, 1 May 1935, reminiscing about 1911, and mentioning the success of de László at Agnew’s with his portrait of Margot Asquith

CC 2011