2880

Mrs Arthur Bowlby, née Catherine Mary Bond 1914

Seated full-length, slightly to the left, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a long evening dress off the shoulder and a long pearl necklace with an organza stole round her shoulders, her left hand on the arm of the settee on which she sits and a blue and gold fabric visible to her left over the seat and draped over her right arm

Oil on canvas, 171.5 x 104.8 cm (67 ½ x 41 ¼ in.)  

Inscribed lower left: P. A. de László / 1914 June, London

Laib L7943 (759) / C3 (19)

NPG 1913-15 Album, f. 34

Sitters Book I, f. 97: Catherine M. Bowlby - May 1914 -

Private Collection

De László painted two portraits of Catherine Bowlby in 1914; the second [2882] was presented to the sitter as a souvenir of her sittings. This was something the artist often did for those family and friends he particularly enjoyed painting. In 1915 de László was commissioned by Arthur Bowlby to paint his portrait [2885] and that of his son David [13702] and the artist then took the opportunity to make a portrait drawing of Mrs Bowlby [2505]. Their daughter Ursula was painted in 1923 [13703].

Sittings for this portrait were protracted and letters in the artist’s archive suggest it was begun in October 1913, with further sittings in December that year but not completed until June 1914. It was certainly finished by 20 June, when Catherine Bowlby enquired how best to send the portrait to Gilston Park, the family home in Hertfordshire.^[1] 

Twenty years later de László saw the present portrait and that of her husband while visiting the sitter’s son at Gilston. He noted in his diary: “Their [sic] I saw – my two large portraits of them – painted at the beginning of the War – Her specially is one of my very best work[s] – I have loved to paint her.”^[2]

During the First World War de László raised funds for the British Red Cross by donating blank canvases to be auctioned. In April 1916 Catherine Bowlby attended a sale at Christie’s and wrote a vivid account of the artist’s success: “Bravissimo - how I wish you could have been there this afternoon to see the reception that your canvas produces. As soon as your name was called out, people stamped on the floor and clapped, and there was a regular hum, far more than when Lavery’s name came up. The bidding started at 400 guineas and went up quickly to 850, there it hung for a minute level with Lavery’s. I tell you the air was taut with excitement. I nearly shouted ‘fifty’ just for the joy of putting it up. However, the moment passed and up it went with a bound to 1,000. How everybody clapped and stamped! It was the most exciting moment I have had for years. I can’t say how pleased we are for we can appreciate a little what it means to you, and how truly you deserve it all and far more. It was a great moment for your son to go thro.’ Lucy did look proud and happy.”^[3] 

Catherine Mary Bond was born on 9 July 1875 at Edgbaston, the elder daughter of Colonel Edwin Edward Bruton Bond (1835-1892) and his wife Frances Katharine Bowlby (1855-1897). On 24 October 1903 she married Arthur Salvin Bowlby (1872-1932) at Holy Trinity, Chelsea. There were four children of the marriage: Francis Edward Salvin (born 1904), David Arthur Salvin (born 1907),  Ursula Mary Rimington (born 1909) and Peter Salvin (born 1915). Their principal family residence was Gilston Park, Harlow. The sitter died on 24 February 1943 and was buried at St Botolph’s Church, Eastwick, near Harlow.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1938, p. 306

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 125

•DLA054-0032, letter from Catherine Bowlby to de László, 20 June 1914  

•László, Philip de, March-July 1936 diary, private collection, 28 June entry, pp. 136-137

KF 2022