4782

CUT DOWN

Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth 1933

Half-length to the right and full face, wearing a shirt and tie

Oil on canvas, 53.5 x 44 cm (21 x 17 ¼ in.)^[1]

[Originally inscribed, lower right: de László / 1933 II]

Laib L18549 (452) / C12 (7): Boy Harmsworth

NPG Album 1933, f. 2

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 75: Vere Harmsworth

Private Collection

This portrait was one of seven commissioned in 1932 by 1st Viscount Rothermere [4759] of members of his family. They included the sitter’s father, Esmond Harmsworth [4772] and mother Margaret [4770], and his siblings Esmée [4776] and Vere [4782]. The three other portraits were of Rothermere’s sister Lady King [4792], the sister of his son’s wife, the Comtesse d’Estainville [4872], and his distant cousin Judith Wilson [7760]. Esmond Harmsworth requested that his children were painted over the Christmas holidays in 1932 and while those of his daughters were completed in January 1933, de László seems not to have been able to complete the present portrait until February.

This portrait was exhibited at Knoedler’s London gallery in 1933 for an exhibition held in aid of The Artists’ General Benevolent Institution. A critic from The Evening News noted de László’s success in capturing the sitter’s likeness: “Mr. Esmond Harmsworth’s small son is enchanting, all in shades of beige and golden-brown, and his wide eyes particularly well-caught and portrayed.”^[2]

Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth was born on 27 August 1925, the son of Esmond, later 2nd Viscount Harmsworth, and his Margaret Hunan Redhead. He was named after his uncle who had been killed at the Somme in 1916, shortly after having been painted by de László [1737]. The sitter’s parents separated when he was five, divorcing in 1938, and he spent his early childhood living between his mother’s hotel suite at Claridges, her house in Dorset and his father’s home in St James’s, London. He spent a year at Eton College but due to the war was evacuated to Canada with his sister, Esmée, and continued his education at Kent School in Connecticut. In 1944 he returned to Eton for a short time before entering wartime service, where he served in the ranks.

In 1951 Vere Harmsworth entered the family business, Associated Newspapers, whose papers were second only to Lord Beaverbrook’s in daily circulation. He is credited with saving their flagship paper The Daily Mail, and indeed the company after an internal review in 1970 had projected losses of £32 million over five years. Harmsworth’s father relinquished control to his son, whose launch of the Mail on Sunday and purchase of a half share of the Evening Standard eventually re-established their position as a dominant force in the British Press. Key to his success was Harmsworth’s belief that the press reflected public taste and public fashions and standards and that women readers were a vital untapped market that he wanted his papers to appeal to.

On 21 March 1957 Harmsworth married Patricia Evelyn Barbara Matthews (1928/9–1992) the daughter of John William Matthews, a Hertfordshire architect, and his wife, Doris. Rothermere settled £2.75 million on Harmsworth on his marriage and the couple established themselves on the London social scene. His wife became known as ‘Bubbles,’ a nickname given by Private Eye, reflecting her success as a society hostess. The couple had three children, two daughters Geraldine (born 1957) and Camilla (born 1964) and a son Jonathan (born 1967).

Harmsworth succeeded his father as 3rd Viscount Rothermere in 1978. After the death of his first wife in 1992, he married his long-term Paris companion, Maiko Joeongshun Lee in 1993. He died of a heart attack in London on 1 September 1998.  His funeral, at St Bride's, Fleet Street, was attended by the prime minister, the leader of the opposition, and his professional competitor Rupert Murdoch.

EXHIBITED:        

•M. Knoedler & Co., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 21 June-22 July 1933, no 28

LITERATURE:        

•Evening News, 23 June 1933

•The Queen, 5 July 1933, p. 10, ill.

•Pesti Hirlap Vasárnapja, April 1934, ill.

•DLA parcel 1933, Compilation of Pesti Hirlap supplements, ill.

KF 2013