Philip Alexius de László, P.R.B.A.

M. Knoedler, New York, An Exhibition of Portraits by P.A. de László, 1932, no.8

The Art News, Vol. XXX, 2 January 1932, front cover illustration;
Edward Alden Jewell, 'Portraits by de László Shown', The New York Times, 5 January 1932, p. 28;
'Every Court But China', Time Magazine, 25 January 1932

The canvas has been lined. The work has been recently cleaned and varnished and appears in excellent overall condition, ready to hang. Under ultraviolet light there are retouchings along the edges, to the background upper right and fine retouching to craquelure to her neck and chin, well executed. Held in a gilt plaster frame (some losses).
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American-born Edith Hope Iselin was painted in de László’s London studio over the course of three sittings in June 1930. The sitter was filmed in the gardens at 3 Fitzjohn’s Avenue wearing the dress and veil in which she was painted. Four years previously George Eastman, of the Eastman Kodak Company, had presented the artist with a Ciné-Kodak model B one of the first motion picture cameras for personal use. The resulting films offer a unique record of de László’s life and work. 

Edith Hope Iselin was the daughter of Charles Oliver Iselin (1854-1932) of New York, a well-known banker and yachtsman, and his second wife Hope Goddard Iselin. She spent much of her childhood at Hopelands in Aiken, South Carolina. The house was given to the city but pulled down and is now a public garden and the coach house is home to the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. She married Archer Jones in 1935 and they had one son. She lived much of the rest of her life on her ranch in Tucson, Arizona, where she died in 2001.

We are grateful to Katherine Field for writing the catalogue entry for this portrait, which will be included in the Philip de László catalogue raisonné, currently presented in progress online: www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com The Hon. Mrs de Laszlo and a team of editors are compiling the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s entire oeuvre. Katherine Field is the Senior Editor.  Please see www.delaszloarchivetrust.com or contact catalogue@delaszlo.com for more information.

To view the motion picture of Edith Iselin please view the below link:

http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/search?filter_text=hope+iselin&filter_group=all&filter_footage=1