3385

Alfred East 1907

Seated three-quarter length to the right, looking to the left, wearing a brown tweed jacket, a green tie with a white shirt and grey trousers, holding his palette and some brushes in his left hand and a large brush in his right, which rests on his right knee

Oil on canvas, 121 x 95 cm (47 ½ x 37 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed top right: In great admiration / to Alfred East / P.A. László / 1907 / London  

Private Collection

According to von Schleinitz, “When László came over to England the most outstanding contemporary portrait painters must have come to his attention. Among these I name above all John S. Sargent, Hubert von Herkomer, J.J. Shannon, John Lavery and the very promising and talented William Orpen. However, László’s most intimate friend among the artists is Sir Alfred East, known for his attractive and idyllic landscapes.”^[1] East lent the artist his studio just off Victoria St in Westminster in August 1907 until he found a suitable one of his own at West House on Campden Hill.

The present portrait was painted by de László in Sir Alfred's studio and given to him as a token of his admiration. In composition it is very reminiscent of Sargent’s portrait of Carolus-Duran, with whom both artists had studied in Paris. In December 1907 de László and East travelled together to St. Ives in Cornwall. It was there that the artist made his first (and indeed only known) etching, a head-and-shoulders portrait of Sir Alfred, which remained in the possession of de László on his death [4986], a fine oil study of moored ships in the harbour [11426] and a beach view [111659]. In 1911 he painted the sitter's youngest daughter, Mildred [4989] and later presented it to her as a wedding gift.

Alfred East was born at Kettering on 15 December 1844,^[2] the youngest son of Benjamin East, an artisan shoe maker, and his wife Elizabeth Wright. Educated at Kettering Grammar School, he went on to the government school of art in Glasgow and then to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris. On his return from France, East lived in Glasgow for a while, before moving to London. He frequently travelled abroad and visited Japan in 1889.  

A Dewy Morning, painted at Barbizon, was his first exhibit at the Royal Academy, in 1883. He went on to exhibit regularly at Burlington House, with the Society of Painter-Etchers and with the Royal Society of British Artists. He became President of the latter in 1906 (a post to which de László was elected in 1930). East often exhibited abroad and gained many distinctions, among them the gold medal at the Paris exhibition in 1900. In that same exhibition de László won the gold medal for his portrait of Pope Leo XIII [4509].

He excelled at landscape painting and etching. He was elected A.R.A. in 1899 and R.A. in 1913, a few months before his death. He was knighted in 1910. He was also an honorary member of several foreign art societies and academies and was made Cavaliere of the crown of Italy for his services in connection with the Venice international exhibition in 1903. His self-portrait, like de László’s, was ordered for the celebrated collection of artists’ autoritratti of the Uffizi Gallery at Florence.  

In 1874, East married Annie Hall. Together they had one son and four daughters. He died in London on 28 September 1913.

EXHIBITED:          

•Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition, 1907, no. 1057, ill. p. 123 

•Paris Salon, 1908, hors concours, no. 1023, p. 94, ill.

•Carnegie Institute, The Thirteenth Annual Exhibition, Pittsburgh, 29 April-30 June 1909, no. 163

•Royal Society of British Artists, Winter Exhibition, 1909, no. 66

•Leeds Museum and City Art Gallery, Spring Exhibition, 1910, no. 43a  

•Royal Society of British Artists, Exhibition, 1937, no. 353

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 34

LITERATURE:          

•The Graphic, 14 October 1913, p. 609, ill.

•Schleinitz, Otto (von), Künstler Monographien, n°106, Ph A. von László, Bielefeld

and Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, pp. 72 & 102, ill. pl. 85

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 246, 263

•East, Sir Alfred. Brush and Pencil Notes in Landscape. Thirty reproductions from water-colour sketches, and twenty-nine from sketches in pencil; with an introduction  by Edwin Bale and a portrait frontispiece by P. A. de László, London, Cassell, 1914, ill. Frontispiece

•Laszlo, Sandra (de) ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, p. 99, ill. p. 98

•Johnson, Paul, and Kenneth McConkey, Alfred East, Lyrical Landscape Painter, Sansom & Company, 2009, ill. p. 7

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 105

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 106, ill. p. 115

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance,

Blackmore, 2024, p. 13, ill. p.14

•László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, 6 August 1907 entry, p. 131, p.133

•DLA004-0004, letter from Alfred East to de László, 7 September 1907

•DLA140-0201, Société des artistes français, Salon de 1908, Bibliothèque des annales, Paris, 1908,

pp. 93-94 ill.

•DLA140-0209, Frantz, Henri, “The Salon of the Société des Artistes Français”, The Studio, vol. 44, no. 184, July 1908, p. 129, ill. p. 134

CWS 2008