3183

Irene Mountbatten, Marchioness of Carisbrooke, née Lady Irene Frances Adza Denison 1934

Half-length slightly to the right, full face, wearing a pale evening gown under an ermine-trimmed cloak, a tiara, drop earrings and a long double row pearl and ruby necklace with a drop pendant, a jewelled bracelet on her left wrist and a ring on her left hand, holding the ermine trim of her cloak, all against a dark background

Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 70.5 cm (36 x 27 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1934   

Laib L18556(510) / C4(14)  

NPG Album 1934, p. 19

Sitters’ Book II, f. 78: 14 May 1934 / Irene Carisbrooke

Private Collection

De László regularly offered blank canvases to charitable organizations for auction as a means of raising funds and the artist would paint the highest bidder. His canvases raised over £4500 for the British Red Cross during the First World War [5556]. On 10 November 1933 a canvas was sold for 575 guineas in aid of the London Hospital, at an event organized by the Marchioness of Carisbrooke. A Mrs Sift was the highest bidder and presented it to the Marchioness.^[1] In December 1933 the London Hospital Committee elected de László a Life Governor of the Hospital in recognition of the gift.^[2] 

The artist travelled to America December 1933 - March 1934 before holidaying in Marrakesh in April and so sittings for the portrait did not begin until 14 May 1934. The artist thought the sitter a “nice good woman – too tall.”^[3] That same day he visited the London Hospital with his wife Lucy, for the first time in his capacity as Life Governor. They were “well received – showed round – & we were much impressed – I am proud to belong to it – & will do my best for them.”^[4] 

The next day the Marchioness attended the studio for her second sitting accompanied by her mother-in-law, Princess Beatrice [3488], and the latter’s daughter, the exiled Queen Ena of Spain [7933].^[5] The artist was unhappy with his first canvas and put this aside to start again [112114]. On 7 July 1934 the artist recorded in his diary: “Began Carisbrook[e] pic…I had a splendid start & more – & better than I thought & glad to have began a new portrait – so much better then [sic] the first – beginning – she can look most charming – the Queen Victoria tiara suits her admirably.”^[6] The tiara belonged to the sitter’s mother-in-law Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, from whom she had inherited it. Its strawberry leaf design had originally been set with rubies before the sitter took it to Cartier in 1933 to have them replaced with diamonds. Further sittings took place 9, 10, 24 and 26 July; the artist noted in his diary that 26 July was: “the last sitting with Lady Carisbrooke & need one or two more in the autumn.”^[7]

Lady Irene Frances Adza Denison was born in London on 4 July 1890, the only daughter of William Denison, 2nd Earl of Londesborough, and Lady Grace Fane. On 19 July 1917, at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace, she married Prince Alexander Albert of Battenberg (1886-1960), later 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke, eldest son of Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice. Alexander was made Marquess of Carisbrooke, Earl of Berkhamsted and Viscount Launceston. There was one child of the marriage, Lady Iris Victoria Beatrice Grace Mountbatten (born 1920). In 1938 the Marchioness was created Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and Dame of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. She died in London on 16 July 1956, and was interred at Whippingham Church, Isle of Wight.

The sitter was also painted by Glyn Philpot (1884-1937) in 1924,^[8] and by William Bruce Ellis Ranken (1881-1941), circa 1930.

PROVENANCE:

Purchased as a blank canvas at a charity auction in aid of the London Hospital, 1934;

Prince Alexander of Battenberg, Marquess of Carisbrooke, husband of the sitter;

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, sister of the Marquess of Carisbrooke;

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 37

•Point de Vue, Images du Monde, no. 1550

•Munn, Geoffrey C., Tiaras: A History of Splendour, Antique Collectors Club, 2001, p. 96, ill. pl. 78

KF 2017