11334

Mrs Harvey Firestone Senior, née Idabelle Smith 1932

Seated three-quarter length slightly to the right in a Louis XV armchair, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a dark dress trimmed with cream lace, a black mantilla, and a pearl necklace, holding a posy of blue flowers to her left shoulder and a glove in her right hand

Oil on canvas, 127 x 97.2 cm (50 x 38 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1932 Easter 

Juley negative 0058587

Sitters’ Book II, f. 72: Idabelle Firestone / Harbel Villa, / Miami Beach / Florida

Private Collection

For a fuller description of the commission for this portrait and other Firestone portraits, see the entry for Harvey Firestone Sr. [110649].

This is one of the seven portraits that de László painted of members of the Firestone family. The sitter’s daughter-in-law sat for him in Paris in 1928 [110828], and a pendant portrait of Harvey Firestone Jr. [110650] was completed in December 1931, during the artist’s visit to Washington, D.C. He completed the present portrait and that of the sitter’s husband during a visit to the family home in Miami, Florida, when he also painted those of their grand-daughters, Elizabeth [111586] and Martha [111667], and her sister-in-law Elizabeth Idabelle Firestone [111303]. A copy of this portrait by Mme. Elizabeth Shoumatoff hangs above the entrance of the New England Conservatory’s Idabelle Firestone Music Library.^[1]

Idabelle Smith was born 10 November 1874 in Minnesota City, Minnesota, the daughter of George T. Smith of Jackson, Michigan, who invented a process for “patent flour.”^[2] She spent her early life in Michigan, later studying music at Alma College, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. She was to maintain an interest in music for the rest of her life. She married Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938) 20 November 1895, the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. They had six sons: Harry (born and died 1897), Harvey, Jr. (born 1898), Russell (born 1901), Leonard (born 1907), Raymond (born 1908) and Roger (born 1912), and a daughter, Elizabeth Idabelle (born 1914).

The sitter composed ‘In My Garden,’ which made its debut as the theme song of the ‘Voice of Firestone’ radio programme in January 1936. ‘If I Could Tell You,’ followed as another theme in 1941. Further published compositions included: ‘You Are the Song in My Heart,’ ‘Do You Recall?,’ ‘Melody of Love,’ and ‘Bluebirds.’ She was elected to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1948.

Idabelle was an active volunteer in a number of charitable organizations including, the Summer Home for the Aged in Akron (of which she was an honorary board member), the Salvation Army, and the City Hospital of Akron, where she funded the Idabelle Firestone Nurses Home.^[3] 

Idabelle Firestone died on 7 July 1954 at Harbel Manor, her home in Akron, Ohio,  aged 79.^[4] 

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•“Every Court But China,” Time, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (25 January 1932), pp. 26-28

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

MD 2013