4411

Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, née Winifred Dallas-Yorke 1912

Seated three-quarter length to the left, her face in semi-profile to the right, a gold wreath just indicated in her hair, wearing an amber cloak lined with white satin over her cream-coloured evening dress, her right hand to her bosom holding the Queen Mary pearl necklace, her left hand over the arm of her chair

Oil on canvas, 125.8 x 100.4 cm (49 ½  x 39 ½ in.)

Inscribed upper left: P. A. de László 1912 II. / Welbeck

Laib L6688(752) / C22(8): Duchess of Portland

Sitters’ Book I, f. 88: Winifred Portland Feby. 5th 1912 / Welbeck

Portland College, Nottinghamshire

The ‘pear pearl’ necklace draped over the Duchess’s right hand once belonged to Queen Mary II and was given to the 1st Earl of Portland by William III, hence this portrait being known as the ‘Queen Mary’s pearls portrait.’ The Duchess wore the necklace for her wedding to the 6th Duke in 1889.

De László also made a study portrait of the Duchess wearing the same laurel wreath [4417] during the sittings for the present portrait, which he presented to the Duke and Duchess as a silver wedding present.^[1] The laurel crown was bought by the artist in Rome in 1900 as a gift for his wife Lucy and made use of it in numerous portraits over the years.

The Duke was so delighted with this ‘Queen Mary’s pearls’ portrait of his wife that he wrote to de László: “Nobilissime, clarissime, amicissime Vir, The portrait of my dear wife which you have been so good as to frame for me is not only an exact reproduction of her beautiful self but it has also a ray of Heaven illuminating in her face the charming qualities of her soul. My ancestor the loyal Newcastle thought that the illustrious Vandyke's paintings were nature and not art, and words that were used for other famous portraits may justly I think be applied to this one of yours: It has an air of nobility about it. A spirit of humanity within it. Truth held your pencil, genius guided it, and bowing a humble homage to art and genius, I am, Your assured admirer, Portland.”^[2]

Some fine sepia lithographs were made from this portrait. The sitter was also painted by John Singer Sargent in 1902.

In 1912 de László also painted two portraits of the Duke of Portland in evening dress [4442] [4443], their daughter Lady Victoria Bentinck [6830] and their second son Morven [6835]. These oil portraits were the first of a great number of paintings he made of the Portland family over the years, laying also the foundations of friendship that was to stand him in good stead when in adversity during the war. De László was frequently a guest at the family home, Welbeck Abbey, where the Duke hung his portraits together in the ‘László Room,’ so called by the artist. He was actually staying at Welbeck, painting the Duke in February 1912, when he received the news of his ennoblement by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor.

Winifred Anna Dallas-Yorke was born on 7 September 1863, the only daughter of Thomas Yorke Dallas-York, of Walmsgate, Lincolnshire, and his wife Frances Perry. Her mother moved in artistic and literary circles, often entertaining her intelligent friends, so as a child Winifred met prominent figures such as Paderewski, Gounod, and Anatole France. On 11 June 1889, she married William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland, at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, London. There were two sons of the marriage, William (Chopper or Sonny) [6821], later the 7th Duke, and Francis Morven [6835], and a daughter, Victoria [6827].

The Duchess of Portland much enjoyed entertaining at the family seat, Welbeck Abbey, and was recognised as one of the greatest hostesses of the Edwardian era, like her dear friend Mabell, Countess of Airlie [2203]. She was appointed Mistress of the Robes to Queen Alexandra [7707] in 1913, a role she undertook until the Queen’s death in 1925.  

However, her prominence in society never prevented her from embracing causes close to her heart. As early as 1891 she was a pioneer in the movement for the protection of birds. She was elected President of the Society for the Protection of Birds that same year, and remained in office for some sixty years until her death. She was a great beauty, and dressed extremely fashionably, however she made a point of sporting feathers from domestic fowl on her hats to show her contemporaries that they could look as attractive as egrets’, or other exotic birds’ plumes. She was also actively involved with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as Vice-President and President of the Ladies Committee for many years.

She was also deeply concerned with the welfare of the working classes, and when, in 1888 and 1889, her husband won a considerable sum of prize money with two racehorses, Ayrshire and Donovan, she suggested that he should use most of it to build the Welbeck almshouses, which were to be known as “The Winnings”. A great benefactor of the local community of miners, she paid for the medical treatment of those who were injured and organised sewing and cookery classes for their daughters so they could become employed as ladies’ maids. Founded in 1877, the Wemyss School of Needlework taught the highest standard of the craft.^[3] In 1923, she was instrumental in the building of the Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital on her husband’s land. She was made a Dame of the British Empire on 3 June 1935, after the Nottingham Miners Welfare Association petitioned the King that an honour should be conferred upon “that angel, our beloved Duchess.”^[4] She was also a Dame of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. After the Second World War, the Duchess founded the Portland Training College for the welfare of disabled men, which became the Portland College for general disability, where the present portrait is generally on display in the Board Room. The Duchess died on 30 July 1954 at Welbeck Abbey.

Original frame by Emile Remy, 153 King’s Road London  S.W.

PROVENANCE:         

The 6th Duke of Portland;

By descent

EXHIBITED:         

•Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, M.V.O.,

1913, no. 16

•Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1914, p. 19, no. 676^[5]

•Corcoran Gallery, Washington, 1921

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de

 László, M.V.O., 1923, no. 22

•Nottingham, 1937, no. 578

• National Portrait Gallery, Philip de László, A Special Display, 27 March- 5 September 2010, no. 1 

LITERATURE:        

•Correspondence from the Duchess of Devonshire to the 9th Duke, 27 November

1912, Devonshire Mss., Chatsworth. By permission of the Duke of Devonshire

•Vita d'Arte, vol. XII, 1913, p. 114

•Vanity Fair and Hearth & Home, 14 May 1914, p. 15, ill.

•Country Life, vol. XXXVII, no. 964, 26 June 1915, front cover, ill.

•“Recent Portraits by Mr. P.A. de László”, in The Studio, London, 1916, vol. LXVIII,

Article pp. 145-56, ill. p. 149

•The Tatler, no. 828, 9 May 1917, p. 177, ill.

•Town & Country, 10 April 1921. New York, Paris London: The Stuyvesant

Company, 1921, p. 35, ill.

•Oakley Williams, ed., Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, with a foreword

by Comte Robert de Montesquiou, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 161-64, ill. opp.

p. 160

•DLA 1936 parcel, Rádióélet, December 1936, ill.

•Portland, William Cavendish-Bentinck (6th Duke), Men, Women and Things, Memories of the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.C.V.O., London, 1937, p. 221, ill. between pp. 160 and 161

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 275-6, ill. opp. p. 280

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P. A. de Laszlo, London, 1969, monochrome ill. pl.

no. 27: The Duchess of Portland

•Goulding, Richard W., The Catalogue of Pictures. The Duke of Portland, prepared

by C. K. Adams, Cambridge University Press, 1936 (Private printing of 150 copies)

ill. pl. 929

•Scarisbrick, Diana, ‘Public and Private Jewels’, Country Life, 13 October 1988, pp. 228-9, ill. p. 228

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, pp. 40-1, fig. 32

•Corbeau-Parsons, Caroline, Philip de László, Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2010, pp. 6-7, ill. pl. 1

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 131-132

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 191, ill. pp. 203, 221

•László, Lucy de, 1914 diary, private collection, 14 June entry, p. 102

•László, Lucy de, 1916 diary, private collection, 23 July entry, p. 206

We are grateful to Hugo Vickers for his help in compiling this entry.

CC  2008