6625

CUT DOWN

Marquise Hélie de Noailles, née Corisande Emma Louise Ida de Gramont 1902

Standing full-length to the left in three-quarter profile, wearing a full white gown the sleeves trimmed with a gold braid, a long yellow organza stole around her shoulders and knotted loosely at her breast, her right hand raised and her left to her side, all against a woodland setting.

Oil on canvas, 250 x 150 cm (86 x 42 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: László F.E. / 1902

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 60: Gramont Psse de Noailles / 17 octre 02

Maison de Gramont Collection, Musée National et Domaine du Château de Pau

De László painted a fine head-and-shoulders study of the sitter made in preparation for this portrait – similar in style to the one he made of Elisabeth de Gramont – which remains untraced. The present portrait was initially part of one of two much larger group portraits, which were cut down into six canvases in 1929, see [8752]. The sitters in this original group were Marguerite-Alexandrine, duchesse de Gramont [6650], her elder son, Antoine XII-Armand [11801] and her daughter Corisande (the present portrait).

Cutting down the portraits to make individual paintings of the six resulting fragments involved considerable work for de László, who had to add panels of canvas to some of the portraits in order to create, or re-create, a harmonious composition for each. Only the other group portrait is recorded in a photograph, however, preparatory works suggest that Marguerite-Alexandrine was on the left, Armand in the middle, and Corisande on the right, see [6544]. If de László eventually adopted the composition outlined in the preparatory work depicting Armand and his sister [7206], the sitter would have had her right hand on her brother’s shoulder. The fact that in this final composition, the sitter’s right hand is not as finished as the rest of the painting would suggest that de László added a panel of canvas in this area, and would confirm that Armand de Gramont was positioned to her left.

Corisande de Gramont was born on 8 August 1880, the daughter of Antoine XI-Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont (1851-1925) and Marguerite Alexandrine von Rothschild (1855-1905). In 1901 she married Hélie, Marquis de Noailles, with whom she had a daughter, Marie Christine (born 1902), and a son, François (born 1905), later duc de Noailles. She dedicated her life to voluntary work, especially during the First World War, in the service of the Red Cross. Amongst her numerous achievements she founded the first Air Nursing Corps. Three years after her death the first Brigade was named in her honour: "Promotion Noailles." She was a member of the international Federation Aeronautique and was made an Officier of the Légion d'Honneur. The sitter died in Monaco on 5 March 1977.

PROVENANCE:        

By descent in the family;

Collection Maison de Gramont, on long-term loan to the Musée National du Château de Pau

EXHIBITED:          

•Paris, Salon de la société des artistes français, 1903, no, 1054 or 1055

•Musée National du Château de Pau, La Belle époque des Gramont au temps des équipages, 8 October 1994-31 January 1995, no. 32

LITERATURE :        

•Arsène, Alexandre, ‘Société des Artistes français, Salon de 1903’, Figaro Illustré, no. 159, June 1903, p. 19

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 210

•Ribeton, Olivier, Un Musée Gramont à Bayonne, Bayonne, 1986, pp. 60-1, no. 17, ill. p. 61

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 79-81

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 66

•László, Lucy de, 1908-1911 diary, 27 December 1908 entry, p. 39

CC 2008