5912

James Joicey, 1st Baron Joicey 1929

Seated three-quarter length, wearing a grey frock-coated suit with a flower in his buttonhole, his right hand resting on one knee, his left holding the arm of the chair

Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 91.5 cm (45 x 36 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1929   

Laib L15590 (511) / C14 (1A)  Hon. Lord Joicey

NPG Album 1927-29, p. 36

Sitters’ Book II, f. 62: Joicey July 23rd 1929.

Private Collection

The Joicey family were considerable patrons of de László and he first made a charcoal drawing of Lord Joicey in 1916 [5899], before painting the present portrait in 1929. They met through the British Red Cross charity auctions that Joicey helped arrange to raise funds during the First World War. On three occasions the artist donated a blank canvas, which gave the purchaser the opportunity to have their portrait painted by him. Many years later, in 1935, the artist’s wife Lucy, met with Justice Sankey to enquire about an ennoblement from the British Royal Family to help dispel any lingering prejudice against the artist as a result of his internment: “I spoke of the canvasses P. has given to Charity, his donation to the A. Ben= [Artists’ Benevolent Fund] & that jealousy a–rose during the war when he gave three canvases for auction to the Rd Cross that fetched £1000 each.  How at the last (3d canvas) we feeling the jealousy asked Mr Joicey  to hold back P’s canvas, (but Joicey sold it privately for Charity then) and still it fetched £1000.”^[1] After de László’s arrest in 1917 many turned against him and Lucy identifies the artist Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope, R.A. [111560] and Mrs John Lavery as the primary individuals who continued to vilify him after his exoneration.  

Lucy de László also mentioned the sitter in her diary 23 June 1934, when she and the artist were staying as guests with Lord Devonport [4571]: “Devonport is in his 78th year & Lord Joicey is in his 88th year. Two fine old boys –  But oh! strength & cruelty in human nature live close together. It is interesting studying these self– made strong men.”^[2] Devonport acted as one of de László’s sponsors for his British Naturalisation in 1914 and remained a loyal friend throughout the internment and subsequent trial by the Naturalisation Revocation Committee in June 1919 which cleared the artist’s name.

Other members of the Joicey family painted by de László include the sitter’s daughter Marguerite in 1917 [5907], his second son, Hugh, later 3rd Baron, in 1923 [5904] and his daughters-in-law, Joan [5902] in 1923 and Georgina [5909] in 1924.

James Joicey was born 4 April 1846 in Tanfield, co. Durham, the son of George Joicey (1813-1856), a mechanical engineer, and his wife Dorothy Gowland (1816-1877). He was educated at Gainford Academy. His father and three of his brothers invested in a colliery at Tanfield Moor and James joined in 1863, aged seventeen. He was made a partner four years later. By 1881 he was head of the company and made several acquisitions, building a colliery empire in the north-east. During his life he served as MP, Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for co. Durham. He was also proprietor of the Newcastle Daily Leader, The Evening Leader, and Northern Weekly. Joicey served as President of the Newcastle upon Tyne Chamber of Commerce, of the London and North Eastern Railway Company, of the Dunrobin Shipping Company and of George Angus & Co. He was created Baronet in 1893 and Baron in 1906. A considerable philanthropist, he did much to lead the movement to improve the conditions of the men working in the mines.

On 23 April 1879 he married Elizabeth Amy Robinson (1856-1881), only daughter of Joseph Robinson (1816-1899) and his wife Elizabeth Johnson (1823-1890). There were two sons of the marriage, James Arthur (born 1880) and Hugh Edward (born 1881). After Elizabeth’s death, soon after the birth of Hugh, he married in 1884 Marguerite Drever (1853-1911), daughter of Colonel Thomas Drever and granddaughter of General de Fontaine of Fontainebleau. They had three children. Both sons, Sydney (born 1884) and Drever (born 1886), were killed in the First World War. Their daughter Marguerite (born 1887) also predeceased her father, in 1924.

In 1905 Lord Joicey purchased Ford Castle, on the river Till in Northumberland, and retired there. He amassed an important picture collection and lent some twenty-two pictures to the Palace of Arts in the North East Coast Exhibition, a world’s fair held in Newcastle in 1929. These included the portrait of his daughter Marguerite by de László [5907], Lady Buckley by Reynolds, The Sheridan Family and Miss Cumberland by Gainsborough, Stoneyhurst College by J.M.W. Turner and Little Miss Muffet by Millais.

He died on 21 November 1936.

EXHIBITED:          

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of Recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September, 1932, no. 24

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 116

LITERATURE:        

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2004, p. 179, ill.

KF 2019