110544

María Rosa Green Devoto 1927

Standing full-length slightly to the right, head turned slightly and looking to the left, wearing a white day dress with a wide pink sash round her waist, holding flowers, a straw hat with a pink ribbon in her right hand

Oil on canvas, 134 x 92 cm (52 ¾ x 36 ¼ in.)

Sitters’ Book II, f. 57: Rosita et Ricardito Green / Paris 27 Nov. 1927

Private Collection

In June 1927, Juana González de Devoto, María Rosa Green Devoto’s grandmother, attended the exhibition of de László’s works at the French Gallery, London. She was struck by the portrait of Master Hugh Astor [2606] and subsequently commissioned de László to paint the present portrait as well as a companion picture of the sitter’s brother, Ricardo Green Devoto [5383]. She also commissioned portraits of two of her daughters, the children’s aunts, María Teresa Devoto González [4880] and María Juana Devoto González [4877]. Their portraits were completed in 1928 and 1930.

María Rosa Green Devoto was the elder of the two children of Ricardo Green Mayobre and María Rosa Devoto González.^[1] She married Ángel María Méndez Sánchez (born 1911).

De László was a great admirer of Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) and the present portrait is influenced by one of that artist’s most famous pictures. The full-length of Miss Sarah Moulton Barrett (1783-1795), more widely known as ‘Pinkie,’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795. The artist may well have seen the picture in London when it was sold from the collection of Lord Michelham, 22-27 November 1926. Viewing of the sale was open to the public and the picture was bought by the art dealer Joseph Duveen who later sold it to Lord Huntington, having first offered it to Andrew Mellon.^[2]

LITERATURE

•Newspaper Cuttings Scrapbook II, pp.98-99

•László, Lucy de, 1927 diary, private collection

SMdeL 2012