3554

Jean Penelope Balfour 1922

Bust length to the left, head turned to the viewer and tilted slightly to the right, wearing a red blouse or jacket and a red velvet ribbon across her forehead, her dark hair plaited, a cream ribbon round the left plait

Oil on board, 24.2 x 19.7 cm (9 ½ x 7 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László

Laib L10980(433) / C2(9A)  

NPG Album 1921-23, p. 9

Sitters’ Book II, f. 31: Nemone Balfour at Dawyck / June 28th 

Private Collection

De László painted two head studies of Jean Penelope Balfour while he stayed with the family at Dawyck, their Scottish estate, in June 1922. The first is unfinished [3558] and both were presented to the family as a gift to mark the artist’s friendship. The sitter’s father Frederick Balfour [3547] was also painted during this visit. The artist painted the sitter’s aunt Margaret Balfour in 1917 [6436], her mother in 1920 [2139] and her brother Alastair in 1931 [3551].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3558].

PROVENANCE:

Frederick Balfour, father of the sitter;

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1924, no. 38

KF 2021