Portrait of the Hon. Esmée Mary Gabrielle Harmsworth, later Countess Cromer, aged nine, half-length

This is one of seven family portraits commissioned by the sitter's grandfather, Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere. Lady Cromer later recalled sitting for the artist: 'I was painted by a number of artists...but none of them painted with such panache as László. In the grand manner with a huge palette and waving a brush, he would stand back, stop, look at me and reflect, before advancing towards the canvas to bestow a single stroke...He sat me on a chair and treated me like a queen; admiring my party frock...He wore a pointed beard and possessed a most intelligent if slightly mischievous expression.'

On 10 January 1942 Esmée married Lt.-Col. George Rowland Stanley Baring, 3rd Earl of Cromer. Between the years of 1967 and 2003 she was a Lady of the Bedchamber and Woman of the Bedchamber for H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

We are grateful to Katherine Field for helping to prepare 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