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Lot Essay
This study portrait was completed during the sittings for the formal portrait, where the sitter is shown seated in three-quarter-length. That portrait is now in the collection of Birmingham University but was originally commissioned by the League of Nations Union (LNU). As indicated in his studio inventory, de László eventually returned his honorarium for the commission to the LNU, as a donation.
Cecil (Edgar Algernon) Robert Gascoyne was born on 14 September 1864 in London, the third son of Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903), and his wife Georgina Caroline Alderson (d. 1899). In 1883, he entered University College, Oxford, taking a Second in Jurisprudence in 1886. The following year, he was called to the Bar (Inner Temple), and specialised in parliamentary work.
He was instrumental in the founding of the League of Nations after World War I and devoted the rest of his career to its service. In May 1923, he was made cabinet minister responsible for league affairs, as lord privy seal, and the same year he became President of the LNU, an office he held until 1945.
In 1937 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and with the disbanding of the League, and formation of the United Nations, he was made an Honorary Life President of the United Nations Association for his dedication to the peace process. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1956 and an Honorary fellow of many Universities.
He died at Tunbridge Wells in Kent on 24 November 1958.