A study portrait of Miss Faith Moore, head-and-shoulders

The portrait study relates to lot 342, and was probably executed after rather than before the larger-scale piece. This is typical of De László, who would often be called upon to repeat a composition that had appealed to friends of family of the sitter in smaller format. The dedication to 'Mrs A. Lee' refers to Ruth, who married Arthur Lee, created the 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham in 1922. The inscription implies that it was a gift to Ruth, and may well have once hung at Chequers. The family had purchased the Buckinghamshire estate in 1917, having leased it for eight years, and almost immeadiately gifted it to the nation for the use of the future Prime Ministers.