111400

Study portrait

Theresa Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry 1912

Head-and-shoulders, in profile to the left, wearing a black choker and rows of pearls

Oil on board, 85 x 58.5 cm (33 ½ x 23 in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: Study of the marchioness of Londonderry / 1912. Summer / P.A. de László

Studio Inventory, p. 28 (153): The Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry. (Lady  Thersa Suzy Chetwynd-Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and Wife of the 6th Marquis of Londonderry). The signature runs “P.A. de Laszlo Summer 1912”.

Private Collection

In July 1912 de László was simultaneously completing the present portrait and that of her grandson [6152], Lord Stewart, in his robes for the 1911 coronation of George V. Frederick Cullen  painted a copy [6130] of the present portrait in 1914. One of de László’s accepted copyists Cullen wrote to the artist that the sitter herself had commissioned it.^[1] 

This picture remained in the possession of the artist until his death. A second study portrait [6128] depicting the sitter in profile to the right was completed from further sittings in September 1912. That picture remained in the possession of the sitter’s family.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see entry [6128].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent;

Sold Bonhams, Knightsbridge, 29 May 2012, lot 160;

5 Hertford Street [private members club]

LITERATURE:        

•DLA062-0076, letter from Cullen to de László, 18 November 1914

KF 2012