.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Painted in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, this portrait is of one of the most celebrated beauties of her age. A photograph shows it on the artist’s easel, alongside that of the Duchess of Windsor, a picture that hung for most of the sitter’s lifetime in the library of her house in the Bois de Bolougne, and is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (fig. 1). The present portrait was commissioned by the sitter as a memento for her lover, the Danish Curt Heinrich Ludwig Erdmann Georg lensgreve Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow (1891-1970). He was at that point married to the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, and would go on to marry 'Peggy' Astor Drayton, a sculptor and member of the Astor clan. Letters from MacDonald to her lover reveal that she sent him cuttings of the dress she wore for her sittings, 'the colour of Murillo's Virgin's cloak', and that Brockhurst was going to try and find an old hand-carved Spanish frame, which he clearly did as it still frames the picture today.
Yvonne Macdonald was born Yvonne Norton-Bell in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1906. Her paternal family had extensive interests across South America, while her mother was born a Lawson-Johnston. Her mother’s fortune derived from Bovril, invented 30 years earlier, which supplied French troops during the Franco-Prussian war, and numerous armies since. For much of the 20th century it was found in kitchens worldwide. Yvonne was sent home to be educated in England, but returned to South America to marry Kenneth Macdonald from another cattle owning family. The marriage was a dynastic one rather than a love match, and she retreated to London to be presented at court in 1930. Thereafter she stayed, and for the next decade lived a life of pleasure. She drove a Bugatti, and learnt to fly.
Her life took a more serious turn during the Second World War, where she acted with considerable bravery. As part of the Mechanised Transport Corps she drove ambulances to the front line, being one of the first to enter France, and as Commandant of the MTC in Paris she was one of the last allied officers to leave the capital as the German army advanced. Instead of returning straight to England as per official orders she remained in France to help as many trapped civilians flee as possible. Much of her war activity remains classified, but she regularly flew her plane to Switzerland and returned with passengers as well as using her South American connections to gain allies there. Her memoirs were aptly entitled Red Tape Notwithstanding. After the war she lived quietly in Scotland: this portrait is now being sold by her family.
Yvonne Macdonald was born Yvonne Norton-Bell in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1906. Her paternal family had extensive interests across South America, while her mother was born a Lawson-Johnston. Her mother’s fortune derived from Bovril, invented 30 years earlier, which supplied French troops during the Franco-Prussian war, and numerous armies since. For much of the 20th century it was found in kitchens worldwide. Yvonne was sent home to be educated in England, but returned to South America to marry Kenneth Macdonald from another cattle owning family. The marriage was a dynastic one rather than a love match, and she retreated to London to be presented at court in 1930. Thereafter she stayed, and for the next decade lived a life of pleasure. She drove a Bugatti, and learnt to fly.
Her life took a more serious turn during the Second World War, where she acted with considerable bravery. As part of the Mechanised Transport Corps she drove ambulances to the front line, being one of the first to enter France, and as Commandant of the MTC in Paris she was one of the last allied officers to leave the capital as the German army advanced. Instead of returning straight to England as per official orders she remained in France to help as many trapped civilians flee as possible. Much of her war activity remains classified, but she regularly flew her plane to Switzerland and returned with passengers as well as using her South American connections to gain allies there. Her memoirs were aptly entitled Red Tape Notwithstanding. After the war she lived quietly in Scotland: this portrait is now being sold by her family.