11641

Study portrait

The Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, née Nina Cavendish-Bentinck 1931

Half-length in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing a black dress, four rows of pearls and drop earrings, her gloved left hand raised to her waist

Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 73.7 cm (38 x 29 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1931 LONDON   

Laib L17020 (151) / C26 (20)  

NPG Album 1931, f. 19

Sitters’ Book II, f. 45: Cecilia Strathmore / July 1st 1931 [on the same page that her daughter Elizabeth, Duchess of York, signed in 1925]

Private Collection

On 15 June 1931, de László received a letter from the Duchess of York [4460], in which she enquired whether he would paint her parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary.^[1] The individual portraits were to be presented on 10 August. As de László was extremely busy at the time, granting her wish would have involved the postponement of other commissions.

The artist nevertheless replied to her positively and on 24 June, the Duchess’s brother, David Bowes Lyon [7319], wrote to the artist, to address the delicate subject of his fee. De László accepted to paint the portraits for a reduced honorarium, and recorded in his diary that on 26 June he had received “a charming letter” from the Duchess of York “thanking & expressing gratefulness for painting her mother & portrait for the golden wedding under such pleasant condition & signed Elisabeth.”^[2] The next day, her brother followed suit in a letter expressing “in a most grateful appreciative way – the pleasure of his whole family – that I am going to paint their parents Strathmore – for the occasion of their golden wedding in August – at a reduced honorarium – his letter gives me much pleasure and satisfaction: I am pleased to be associated with that coming family event.”^[3]

No time was lost. The first sitting for the present portrait took place in the afternoon of 1 July. De László found Lady Strathmore “distinguished beautiful charming,”^[4] and remarked that her daughter, Lady Elphinstone [5182], whom he had painted two years earlier, was very like her. Lady Strathmore granted de László sittings of two or three hours during the mornings of the three consecutive days, starting at half past nine, and on 4 July, he recorded in his diary: “Dear Lady Strathmore – finished her portrait sketch – she said I love it I look a Lady: replied I did what I see - & feel -!”^[5]

Only four days later, de László started on the Earl of Strathmore’s pendant [11642], and both pictures were completed well in time for their presentation on 10 August. Lord Strathmore received his from his tenants and estate staff, and Lady Strathmore hers from the Duchess of York, on behalf of the whole family.

As well as painting the Duchess of York, Lady Elphinstone, and the Honourable David Bowes Lyon, de László also painted Lady Rose Granville [5325], the Strathmores’ third daughter.

Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck was born on 11 September 1862, the eldest daughter of the Reverend Charles William Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck and Caroline Burnaby. On 16th July 1881 at Petersham, Surrey, she married Claude George Bowes Lyon, the eldest son of Claude Bowes Lyon and his wife Frances Dora Smith (1855-1944).  Together they had six sons and four daughters: The Honourable Violet (born 1882), Lady Mary (May) Frances (born 1883), Patrick, Lord Glamis (born 1884), the Honourable John (born 1886), the Honourable Alexander (born 1887), the Honourable Fergus (born 1889), Lady Rose Constance (born 1890), the Honourable Michael (born 1893), Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite (born 1900) and the Honourable David (born 1902). They lost their eldest daughter Violet to diphtheria when she was eleven, and two of their sons died young: Alexander, of a brain tumour in 1911; and Fergus, who died in battle at Loos in 1915. Cecilia became Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1904, when her husband succeeded his father as 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.^[6]

She was said to have a ‘genius for motherhood’^[7] and breast-fed all her babies, which at the time was unfashionable for a woman of her rank. She communicated to her children her confident and uninhibited approach to life, and expected the highest standards from them, preaching that ‘work is the rent you pay for life.’ She personally taught them to read and write, starting with Bible stories. She also considered music an important subject: a talented pianist herself, she often invited distinguished musicians to stay when she was entertaining. Lady Strathmore was chatelaine of three grand houses^[8] which she ran efficiently and practically, keeping meticulous account books. During the First World War, Glamis served as a hospital for the wounded, in which she played an important role. She had a passion for gardening, and spent nearly a decade creating the Italian garden at Glamis. She was also a skilled needlewoman. An elegant and stately woman, she wore black for many years, as in this portrait. She died on 23 June 1938, aged seventy-five.  

EXHIBITED:          

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September 1932, no. 6

•M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 21 June-22 July, 1933, no. 20

•The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Annual Exhibition, 1937, no. 134 

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6 -22 January 2004, no. 121

LITERATURE:          

•Vickers, Hugo, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hutchinson, London, 2005, ill. pp. 96- 97)

•Evening Standard, 21 June 1933

•Glasgow Bulletin, 27 June 1933

•The Lady, 29 June 1933, p.1019, ill.

•The Studio Magazine, 1933, Vol. CVI, pp. 148-150, ill. p. 149

•Verne, Mathilde, Chords of Remembrance, Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., 1936, p. 106, ill.

•Illustrated London News, Coronation Record Number, 27 February 1937, p. 56, ill.

•Illustrated London News, 8 May 1937, p. 785, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 358

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 185, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 227-228        

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 78

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 47

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

•DLA019-0118, letter from William Aiken to de László, 11 August 1931

•DLA162-0405, Pesti Hírlap, 24 June 1933, p. 7

•DLA 1936 parcel, Képes Vasárnap, p. 14, ill.

•DLA162-0405, “Maghalt az angol királyné édesanyja” [The Mother of the Queen of England has Died], Pesti Hírlap, 24 June 1938, p. 5

CC 2008