112289

VERSO

Preparatory work

The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, née Lady Helen Magdalen Gordon-Lennox 1937

Standing full-length wearing a tiara, with columns in the background

Graphite on paper, 48.5 x 31.5 cm (19 ⅛ x 12 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed top left: 50 [on p. 50 of de László’s last sketchbook]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 87: Helen Northumberland Aug. 2nd 1937.

Private Collection

This is a preparatory study for the fourth and last portrait de László painted of the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland [6868]. It was completed on 6 August 1937 only a few months before the artist’s death in November.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6841].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death

KF 2016