112637

DESTROYED

The Honourable Marguerite de Fontaine Drever Joicey 1917

Half-length to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a chemise and holding a book in both hands

Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 71.1 cm (36 x 28 in.)

Studio Inventory, p. 96 (531): Miss Joicey. Re-stretched 1938.

This portrait was painted in 1916, when de László completed a full-length portrait of the sitter [5907]. The present picture was rejected in favour of the larger composition. A letter in the artist’s archive suggests that this portrait was being painted in November 1916 and that the sitter and her father, 1st Baron Joicey [5912], were going to the studio together to see its progress.^[1] The finished portrait was not completed until September 1917.

A letter from Baron Joicey to de László in September 1926 asks if he still has the present portrait and if it could be finished.^[2] Marguerite Joicey had died in April 1924 and another portrait of her would have brought some comfort to her father, who had already lost a wife and two sons. De László must have refused the request as it remained rolled in his studio until his death, when it was destroyed with other pictures considered by his executors as unworthy of his reputation.

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Destroyed in accordance with the artist’s will, 1947

LITERATURE:

•DLA046-0007, letter from Marguerite Joicey to de László, 15 November 1916  

•DLA123-0120, letter from 1st Baron Joicey to de László, 22 September 1926  

KF 2019