6212

Faith Moore 1920

Seated full-length on a floral upholstered sofa, her legs crossed, wearing a red patterned tea gown, a string of beads round her neck, her left hand resting on a white West Highland terrier lying on the sofa beside her, her right elbow on a blue cushion, her head turned to the left, looking out of a window with teal curtains

Oil on canvas, 52.7 x 52.7 cm (20¾ x 20¾ in.)

Inscribed lower left:  de László / Chequers 1920  [incised into paint]

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 18: Faith Moore “ “  “ [7 November 15th Chequers / Bucks]

The Administrative Trustees of the Chequers Estate

Small full-length portraits in interiors are not usual in de László’s oeuvre, and these rare pictures are imbued with an intimate atmosphere: he adopted the format mainly in portraying his close friends and family. He started experimenting with small scale full-length portraits in interiors during his internment, using his wife Lucy as a model [10449]. These works are usually characterised by de László’s exploration of the effects of sunlight on striking colour schemes, as in the present painting. It was set at Chequers, where Faith spent so much of her time [6199].

The artist’s palette in this instance is particularly close to the one he used in the double portrait of Faith Moore’s sister and brother-in-law, Ruth and Arthur Lee [6186], showed as a “portrait in the portrait” in the background of the present painting. In 1920, the Lees had already made all the necessary arrangements to donate Chequers to the Nation for use by future Prime Ministers. This portrait, like the Lees’ painted on the occasion of their last days at Chequers– is rich in nostalgia.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6199].

PROVENANCE:  

Lady Lee of Fareham, the sitter’s sister;

Bequeathed to Chequers, 1966

EXHIBITED:
•National Portrait Gallery, London, Philip de László: Portraits, 27 March – 5 September 2010, no. 7

LITERATURE:  

•Major, Norma, Chequers, The Prime Minister’s Country House and its History, London, 1996, pp. 126-27, ill. p. 127

•The Studio Magazine, London, February 1921, Vol.LXXXI (81), No. 335, p.44- 57, ill. p.57

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 153, fig. 76

•Corbeau-Parsons, Caroline, Philip de László, Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 2010, pp. 10-11, ill. pl. 7

CC 2008