The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Philip Alexius de László, P.R.B.A.
Portrait of George Ulick Browne, 6th Marquess of Sligo (1856-1935), half-length wearing the uniform of the Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo
Auction Closed
March 24, 08:41 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Philip Alexius de László, P.R.B.A.
1869-1937
Portrait of George Ulick Browne, 6th Marquess of Sligo (1856-1935), half-length wearing the uniform of the Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo
signed and dated lower left: P.A. de László/1916. II. 26.
oil on canvas, in a frame made by Emile Remy
91.5 x 71 cm.
P. de László, 1934 diary, private collection, 18 April entry;
DLA023-0153, 6th Marquess Sligo to de László, 3 September 1934;
O. Rutter, Portrait of a Painter, London 1939, pp. 340-1, 364;
The Marquess of Sligo, Westport House and the Brownes, Moorland Publishing 1981, p. 69, ill;
D. Hart-Davis, in collaboration with C. Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press 2010, p. 188.
A man of action, Lord Sligo is shown in the uniform of the Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo. The medal ribbon he wears recalls his service as Captain of the 12th Bengal Cavalry in the Afgan War, 1879-80. He had been born in India where his father Lord Henry Browne (later 5th Marquess) was attached to the Bengal Civil Service and his mother's father was deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals in Bengal. After coming to Britain in the early 1880s he married Agatha Hodgson daughter of James Hodgson. Like her parents they not only lived in London but also near Haslemere at Whitwell Hatch. Here he was involved with local government and his military skills must have stood him in good stead as Captain of the Fire Brigade. He had a broad range of interests that led him to become a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians, a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society, and of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1924 whist in Hong Kong he obtained a South China salamander which he presented to London Zoo (the species is known as Andrias Sligo).
In 1903 his father, though a fourth son, inherited the family title and a decade later this son succeeded him to the title and estates at Westport (also becoming the 4th Earl of Clanricarde). In 1914 Lord Sligo was made Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo, a post he held throughout the 1st World War.
We are grateful to Katherine Field for writing a catalogue entry for this lot which is available upon request. This portrait will be included in the Philip de László catalogue raisonné, currently presented in progress online: www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com