4570

Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, 1st  Viscount Devonport  1925

Standing full-length to the left looking to the right, wearing a morning coat and waistcoat with a gold watch chain, wing collar and blue bow tie, his left hand resting on a rolled map on a desk behind him, his right holding his pince-nez, a silver inkstand and a number of leather-bound books to the left on the desk

Oil on canvas, 235 x 132 cm (92 ½ x 52 in.)

Inscribed, lower left: de László 1925

Laib L11760 (111) / C7 (33)

NPG 1925-27 Album, f. 11b

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 43: Devonport 1st Decr. 1924

Private Collection

De László painted the sitter on two other occasions, in 1914 in Court Dress [4571], currently on loan to Cranleigh School in Surrey, the sitter’s alma mater, and a portrait in shooting dress in 1921 [4573]. He also painted Lady Devonport in 1915 [4001].  

The present portrait was commissioned by the Port of London Authority for their headquarters in Trinity Square, Tower Hill and was set into the paneling of the board room. When the P.L.A. sold its head office to developers in 1971, the painting was accidentally included in the sale as part of fixtures and fittings.  The canvas was later removed from its frame and was sold again at auction in London.  

Such was its importance that two copies were commissioned of the present work. The first [3946] was a contemporary copy by de László’s trusted copyist, Sydney Kendrick, for the Greenwich Nurses Home, to whom Lord Devonport had provided considerable funding.^[1] The second [4483] was completed in 1972 as a bust portrait by the artist-restorer Zolt Nemethy, to hang in the P.L.A.’s new headquarters.  

Lord Devonport was one de László’s greatest supporters and their friendship lasted until the former’s death in September 1934. The artist and his wife had visited him in June that year and Lucy’s diary, written during their stay, captures the couple in a reflective period of their lives. No doubt this was a result of de László’s own heart scare earlier that year and the advancing age of many of their closest friends. “P & I went a lovely walk thro’ the woods…then under the lovely beech he told me (as he has often told) that never had he such an impression as I made on him when we met in Munich…‘When I thought of taking a serious step with a woman – you always came in between – I could not do, something kept me back - you can call it instinct, whatever you like - but I never again had such a feeling for anyone.’”^[2]

After Devonport’s death, his son Mark Hudson Kearley (born 1895) sent a heartfelt letter to the artist thanking him for the friendship he had shown his father. “I am glad that you were amongst my father’s friends, who were loyal to him to the end … In spite of his faults, my father was a grand old man & we shall all miss him. He was like a rock that dominated our mental landscape for all the years that we can remember. Now that the rock has gone, we look up & the landscape & our surroundings seem strange & unfamiliar.”^[3]

For biographical notes on the sitter see [4571].

PROVENANCE:

Commissioned for the Port of London Authority Building, Tower Hill, London;

Sotheby's, 23 January 1980, lot 96;

Phillips, London, 8 May 1990, lot 39;

Private Collection

LITERATURE:        

•DLA022-0359, letter from the Hon. Mark Kearsley to de László, date unknown

•László, Lucy de, 1934 diary, private collection, 23 June 1934

KF 2012