111052

Doctor  John Bentley Squier Jr 1927

Seated half-length, slightly to the right, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a dark three-piece suit with a striped necktie, a handkerchief in his breast pocket and wearing spectacles, his hands together on his lap, holding a pair of white gloves.

Oil on canvas, 71 x 99 cm (28 x 39 in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / LONDON 1927

Laib L14998(782) / C25(10)

Sitter’s Book II f. 55: J. Bentley Squier. [among other signatures dated 1927]

Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee

This is one of a pair of portraits commissioned by Dr. Squier’s friend, Adolph Ochs [6487]. Its pendant was the portrait of the sitter’s wife, née Leah Ursula Bradt [10029]. Ochs was extremely wealthy and paid $4,000 for each portrait,^[1] a generous present to give as a simple token of friendship. Dr. Squier was a famous urologist, and Ochs was one of his patients. One could therefore speculate that Ochs wanted also to thank him for his services.

Both portraits were painted in London in 1927, between 23 or 24 of August and 2 September.^[2] They were shipped on the same transatlantic liner that took Dr and Mrs Squier home to New York, where they arrived on 11 October.^[3] 

On 28 October 1927, Adolph Ochs sent de László a cheque, and thanked him for the two commissions, explaining that he had “never paid for anything with more pleasure.” After complimenting the artist on his painting of Mrs Squier, he added: “Dr. Squier’s portrait is also enthusiastically admired. He can well be pleased to be handed down to posterity in that likeness, for it portrays the gentleman of superior intelligence and high character that all who come in contact with him know he is. Apart from the pleasure and satisfaction the portraits give them, the Squiers regard their acquaintance with you and your family as a joy and inspiration. They sing in a delightful chorus their admiration and affectionate regard. You have certainly made them your friends.”^[4] This is confirmed by a letter from Mrs Squier written the same day, the tone and contents of which reveal how close de László’s family and hers had become during the intensive week of sittings they gave the artist in his studio in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Swiss Cottage.

As a token of this new friendship, Squier presented de László with a fine Boucheron cigarette case bearing the following inscription: “with Deep admiration for / de Laszlo, the artist / and deepest affection for / de Laszlo the man./ J. Bentley Squier / September 1927.” The cigarette case remains in the collection of a descendant of the artist.

Further correspondence in the artist’s archive reveals that the Squiers’ daughter Ursula became friends with his sons and that she invited the entire de László family to her wedding. To mark this occasion, the painter presented the bride with her portrait [111534].

John Bentley Squier Jr was born in New York on 6 November 1873, the only son of John Bentley Squier (1840-1924) and his wife Adeline Woodhull, née Lum (1845-1903). He attended high school in New York, and went on to study medicine at Columbia University, graduating in 1894. He subsequently worked for twelve years as attending surgeon for the City Department of Charities and in 1909, he became Professor of Genito-Urinary Surgery at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, where he stayed until 1924. From 1917 he was also Professor of Urology at Columbia University.

During the First World War, he served as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps, and was instrumental in establishing the Columbia War Hospital.^[5] In 1922 he was among a group of doctors who unsuccessfully sued the United States government to end Prohibition.

On 21 August 1902 he married in New York Leah Ursula Bradt [10029], the daughter of Morris and Julia Felleman Bradt. They had a son, John Bentley Jr (born 1903), and a daughter, Ursula (born 1906 [111534]). The family travelled extensively, spending holidays at White Sulphur Springs in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, while in Kobe, Japan, on their return from a trip to China, an earthquake struck Yokohama. In the aftermath of the earthquake Dr. Squier was instrumental in providing medical aid to the stricken areas.^[6] In 1938, on board an Atlantic liner, he cared for an ill fellow passenger, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden. After his successful treatment, the Crown Prince, on behalf of his father the King [8017], bestowed upon Dr. Squier the honour of Commander of the Order of the North Star.^[7]

Dr Squier was one of the founders of the American College of Surgeons, of which he was president from 1932 to 1933. From this position he spoke out against any attempt to create an American equivalent of the National Health Service. He was a member of the Metropolitan, University, Union and Racquet and Tennis Clubs. “Small in stature, with kindly eyes and a gentle, almost shy manner, he deeply impressed those who met him, either professionally or otherwise. He had a remarkable gift for converting his patients into lasting friends.”^[8] He retired in 1940, and died in 1948. The J. Bentley Squier Urological Institute at Columbia University Medical Center is named after him, and was founded by friends and former patients. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. A portrait of the sitter by Julian Lamar was bequeathed to the Centre by Mr. Adolph Ochs, whose personal physician he had been, in 1942.^[9] 

At the time of their daughter’s marriage in 1928, the Squiers were living at 8 East Sixty-Eighth Street, New York; by the time of Dr. Squier’s death in 1948 their home was at 995 Fifth Avenue, where Mrs. Squier continued to live until her death in 1956.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

Bequeathed by J. Squier Reimer to the Hunter Museum of American Art (Accession No. 1976.16.a)

LITERATURE:

•The New York Times, 16 October 1931, p. 16, ill.

•Correspondence between Adolph Ochs and de László, in the possession of a descendant of Mr Ochs

•DLA040-0020, letter from Mrs Squier to de László, 28 October 1927

CC 2008