13201

Preparatory work

Lady Duff Gordon, née Lucy Christiana Sutherland 1913

Seated three-quarter length to the left, on an upholstered sofa, full face to the viewer, wearing a black décolleté evening dress and a blue stole off her shoulders, her left hand raised to her breast, her right hand resting on a small black dog at her side on the sofa.

Oil on board, 40.6 x 33 cm (15 ¾ x 12 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed, lower left: P.A de László / 1913 London

Studio Inventory, p. 73 (392): Study of a Lady, Seated, wearing blue dress and scarf

Private Collection

This oil sketch was produced by de László to illustrate his concept for the composition of Lady Duff Gordon’s portrait to his sitter. According to her grandson she was not pleased, wishing both her Pekingese dogs to be included. The artist offered to paint another oil sketch but the sitter refused and the present picture remained in his studio until his death. It was unidentified but a photographic proof survives in the Duff Gordon family archive which would have been sent by the artist for the sitter’s approval.

De László painted the sitter’s mother, Mrs Kennedy [5865] in 1915, three portraits of her sister Elinor Glyn [5361] [5359] in 1914 and [5363] in 1927. Between 1923 and 1925 he painted two portraits each of Elinor’s daughters Margot [4643] & [4650] and Juliet [7744] [7748].

Lucy Christiana Sutherland was born 13 June 1862, in St. John’s Wood, London, the eldest daughter of Douglas Sutherland (1838-1865), a Scottish engineer, and his wife Elinor Saunders (1842-1937) of Guelph, Ontario. After the early death of her father the family returned to live in the town of her mother’s birth. Lucy showed early creativity, making dresses for herself and her dolls, influenced by current fashionable French clothes sent to them by relatives in Paris. Her mother remarried in 1871, to David Kennedy (1807-1890) and the family moved again, settling in Jersey.

A difficult relationship with her step-father led to an early marriage in 1884 to James Stuart Wallace, a much older but socially well-connected wine merchant. They had a daughter, Esmé (born 1885), but the relationship did not survive and he left her for a music-hall dancer. Lucy petitioned for divorce in 1889 and moved with her child to live with her recently widowed mother in London.

Lucy supplemented her small income as a dressmaker working from home. She developed her own designs, eventually founding the fashion house Maison Lucile.  Her sister, the novelist and socialite Elinor Glyn, wore only her creations, contributing to the early success of the business. Branches of ‘Lucile’ were opened in London, New York, Paris, and Chicago, making it the first couture house to become a global fashion brand. Lady Duff Gordon is today considered one of the leading fashion designer of the Edwardian age and founder of Twentieth-century fashion.

She married again on 24 May 1900, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon (1862-1931) a prominent Scottish landowner and accomplished fencer who represented Great Britain at the 1906 Summer Olympics. The couple were on board The Titanic when she sank 15 April 1912. There was controversy over their survival, having boarded a lifeboat together early in the evacuation of the ship. They were exonerated of any wrong-doing during the British Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster.

After the First World War Lucy sold her couture houses to an American manufacturer, and abandoned her commercial rights to the name ‘Lucile’. In 1922 she left the company entirely and retired from the world of fashion. After the death of her husband in 1931 she benefited from the income of a trust set up for her under the terms of his will. She lived modestly in London and died 20 April 1935 at a nursing home at 100 West Hill, Putney. Her autobiography, Discretions and Indiscretions, was published in 1932.

PROVENANCE:         

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Stephen de Laszlo, his second son;

Sold at Christie’s London, 13 June 1997;

Sold at Christie’s London, 14 October 2004;

Canon Gallery;

Private Collection;

Sold Bonhams Knightsbridge, 20 March 2018

LITERATURE:

•Canon Gallery, Petworth, Autumn Exhibition, 20 November – 2 December 2004, ill.

KF 2013