9916

Lady Gresley, née Lady Frances Louisa Spencer-Churchill 1924

Half-length to the right, head turned slightly and looking left, wearing a blue and gold stole round her shoulders over a black dress with with draped collar, a pale blue ribbon in her hair, with turquoise drop-earrings and a pearl necklace

Oil on canvas, 97.8 x 71.8 cm (38 ½ x 28 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1924. July

Inscribed upper left: LADY FRANCES GRESLEY.  

Laib L11577(799) / C11(3) Lady R. Gresley

Private Collection

De László intended to paint Lady Gresley’s portrait in early April 1924 at studio in 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue, however, sittings were delayed by her developing a severe cold.^[1] The artist instead took the opportunity to paint the pendant portrait of her husband, Sir Robert Gresley [12907]. Sittings for the present portrait took place in July and by mid-September it was completed and hung at Drakelow, the family estate near Burton-on-Trent.

Soon after the portrait’s arrival at Drakelow, Lady Gresley wrote to the artist: “Just a few lines I must send you to say how very greatly everyone admires the picture you have done of me. I am unable to put into words what a work of genius everyone thinks it is! I only beg you not to reply to this letter, but I should be much wanting in a sense of gratitude if I did not try to convey to you, in a few very badly expressed lines  – what a marvellous success the picture is! There is only one opinion about it!”^[2]

In 1935 de László noted in his diary: “Varnished the portraits of Sir R. Lady Francis [sic, ‘Frances’] Gresley – painted during the war [sic] – they look perfect – of yesterday finished. She is the sister of our late Duke of Marlborough – they are now struggling with poverty – The change is too sudden: He is one of the oldest Baroney [sic] – of the realm, nice people – this portraits I painted as a good exchange for the 3 cazzonis [sic] – which I love.”^[3]

It is not clear where de László re-varnished the portraits as financial ruin had forced the sale of Darkelow and all its contents in 1931. The portraits were unsold and the Gresley Trust, set up to manage their affairs, presented them to Lady Gresley. She and her husband were living separately, unable to afford even a small residence of their own.^[4] 

Lady Frances Louisa Spencer-Churchill was born on 15 September 1870, the eldest daughter of the 8th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Anne Hamilton, and a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill. Her brother, the 9th Duke, married the American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. On 6 June 1893 in St Margaret’s, Westminster, she married Sir Robert Gresley (1866-1936), 11th Bt. of Drakelow. There were three sons of the marriage: Nigel (born 1894), Laurence (born 1896) and Anthony (born 1903) a daughter, Joan was born in 1900 and survived only a year. None fathered sons and so the Gresley name and title became extinct. Lady Frances died on 13 November 1954, at a nursing home in Hove.

PROVENANCE:

Bought in at Hampton’s & Sons, Drakelow: The Gresley Collection, 14-17 and 20-22 July 1931, lot 852;

Given by the Gresley Trust to Lady Gresley;

Unknown sale after the sitter’s death in 1954, with the portrait of Sir Robert Gresley;

Sotheby’s, London, 2 June 2004, lot 42;

Private Collection;

Bonham’s 27 September 2024, lot 375

LITERATURE:

•Country Life, 3 January 1925, ill. frontis.

•“Drakelow Park,” The Herald, Tamworth, 4 July 1931

•Ellis, Bob, “After Drakelow”, Derbyshire Archaeological Society Miscellany, Spring 2023, pp. 13-17, ill. p. 13

•DLA069-0021, letter from Lady Gresley to de László, 5 April 1924  

•DLA069-0027, letter from Lady Gresley to de László, 21 September 1924  

•László, Philip de, January-June 1935 diary, private collection, 30 January entry

KF 2024