.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Lady Rosemary Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1893-1930), later Viscountess Ednam, was the youngest daughter of Cromartie, fourth Duke of Sutherland (1851-1913) and his wife Millicent (1867-1955), a great social and political reformer known as the ‘Democratic Duchess’.
During the First World War, Lady Rosemary worked alongside her mother as a Red Cross nurse in France, where during the summer of 1917, she met Edward, Prince of Wales, who fell in love and proposed to her. However, his father, King George V, opposed the match on the grounds of her ‘chequered family’. Following her father’s death, Rosemary’s mother Millicent had married Percy Desmond Fitzgerald, whose infidelity led to their divorce in 1919. She later married Colonel George Ernest Hawes, divorcing him in 1925. This, and the behaviour of Rosemary’s uncle, the 5th Earl of Rosslyn -- who had been divorced twice, meant that King George felt she was an unsuitable match for Edward. Rosemary’s great friend Lady Paget wrote ‘The Prince was bitter and furious. I don't think he ever forgave his father. I also felt that from that time on, he had made up his mind that he would never make what might be called a suitable marriage to please his parents’. Rosemary was rather more philosophical about the situation, and on 8 March 1919 married William, Viscount Ednam, later 3rd Earl of Dudley.
Viscount Ednam was MP for Hornsey from 1921-1924, and the couple became a central part of a lively and well-connected young political group in London. Rosemary’s life was cut tragically short when the plane in which she was returning to London from Le Touquet disintegrated and crashed in Kent. The Meopham air disaster also claimed the lives of the Marquess of Dufferin, Sir Edward Ward Bt., and Mrs Sigrid Loeffler, as well as the pilot and co-pilot.
The present drawing, dated 1919, was probably commissioned to mark the occasion of the sitter's marriage. Sargent had in 1904 made two portraits of her mother, one of which (fig. 1) was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year and widely celebrated: ‘The pleasure produced by the first sight of a masterpiece by Gainsborough or Reynolds or Romney, fresh from the easel, must have been somewhat akin to the glow of the eye’s delight at the splendour of John Sargent’s The Duchess of Sutherland.’ (Academy, 7 May 1904, p. 530.) Sargent favoured the immediacy and richness of charcoal for his portrait drawings after he gave up painting in oil in 1907. In the present drawing dense shading behind the figures head allows the use of the paper to create highlights, whilst rapid, hatching strokes create the texture of her hair. Sargent’s portrait drawings were hugely fashionable at this time, and often reproduced for viewing by the wider family. This drawing was photographed by Paul Laib (neg. 15041 (078), Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art), and copies were probably given to family members, perhaps those too distant to attend the wedding.
We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his help in preparing this catalogue entry. The drawing will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Sargent's charcoal portraits.
During the First World War, Lady Rosemary worked alongside her mother as a Red Cross nurse in France, where during the summer of 1917, she met Edward, Prince of Wales, who fell in love and proposed to her. However, his father, King George V, opposed the match on the grounds of her ‘chequered family’. Following her father’s death, Rosemary’s mother Millicent had married Percy Desmond Fitzgerald, whose infidelity led to their divorce in 1919. She later married Colonel George Ernest Hawes, divorcing him in 1925. This, and the behaviour of Rosemary’s uncle, the 5th Earl of Rosslyn -- who had been divorced twice, meant that King George felt she was an unsuitable match for Edward. Rosemary’s great friend Lady Paget wrote ‘The Prince was bitter and furious. I don't think he ever forgave his father. I also felt that from that time on, he had made up his mind that he would never make what might be called a suitable marriage to please his parents’. Rosemary was rather more philosophical about the situation, and on 8 March 1919 married William, Viscount Ednam, later 3rd Earl of Dudley.
Viscount Ednam was MP for Hornsey from 1921-1924, and the couple became a central part of a lively and well-connected young political group in London. Rosemary’s life was cut tragically short when the plane in which she was returning to London from Le Touquet disintegrated and crashed in Kent. The Meopham air disaster also claimed the lives of the Marquess of Dufferin, Sir Edward Ward Bt., and Mrs Sigrid Loeffler, as well as the pilot and co-pilot.
The present drawing, dated 1919, was probably commissioned to mark the occasion of the sitter's marriage. Sargent had in 1904 made two portraits of her mother, one of which (fig. 1) was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year and widely celebrated: ‘The pleasure produced by the first sight of a masterpiece by Gainsborough or Reynolds or Romney, fresh from the easel, must have been somewhat akin to the glow of the eye’s delight at the splendour of John Sargent’s The Duchess of Sutherland.’ (Academy, 7 May 1904, p. 530.) Sargent favoured the immediacy and richness of charcoal for his portrait drawings after he gave up painting in oil in 1907. In the present drawing dense shading behind the figures head allows the use of the paper to create highlights, whilst rapid, hatching strokes create the texture of her hair. Sargent’s portrait drawings were hugely fashionable at this time, and often reproduced for viewing by the wider family. This drawing was photographed by Paul Laib (neg. 15041 (078), Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art), and copies were probably given to family members, perhaps those too distant to attend the wedding.
We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his help in preparing this catalogue entry. The drawing will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Sargent's charcoal portraits.