4638

The Honourable John William Davis, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s 1923 

Half-length to the right, almost full face and looking to the viewer, wearing a dark suit and waistcoat, his right hand raised to his waist

Oil on canvas, 86.4 x 61 cm (34 x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1923 / LONDON

Laib L11116(760) / C6(26)  

NPG Album 1923, p. 53

Sitters’ Book II, f. 37: John W. Davis Aug. 3 1923.

Private Collection

De László first painted Davis [4636] and his wife [111491] in London in 1920. That portrait was commissioned by the sitter for presentation to the collection of the American Embassy to commemorate his term as American Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s.

Davis’s biographer noted that de László was “not wholly satisfied with the blandness of the official portrait of the Ambassador,” and painted a second portrait, which is thought to be the present picture.^[1] A rejected version [4640], which mirrors the pose of the present picture, was kept by the artist until his death.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4636].

PROVENANCE:

Mrs Julia Davis Adams, the sitter’s daughter

EXHIBITED:

•M. Knoedler & Co., New York, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 19-31 October 1925, no. 15

•The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Special Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 5-27 December 1925, no. 15

•The Baltimore Museum of Art, Special Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 31 December 1925-10 January 1926, no. 15

•The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., Portraits of American Law, 1989

LITERATURE:

•Harbaugh, William H., Lawyer’s Lawyer: The Life of John W. Davis, New York, Oxford University Press, 1973, p. 146, ill. between p. 272 & 273

•Voss, Frederick S., Portraits of the American Law, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and University of Washington Press, 1989, p.140-143, ill. p. 141

•Davis, Julia, and Fleming, Dolores A., eds., The Ambassadorial Diary of John W. Davis: The Court of St. James’s, 1918-1921, West Virginia University Press, 1993, ill. p. 266; p. 274n1

•Tucker, Garland S., III, The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election, Emerald Book Co., 2010, ill. p. 129

MD 2018