Sir Gerald Festus Kelly Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Hall

Oil on canvas

Image size: 15 1/8 x 18 1/8 inches (38.5 x 46cm)

Hand-carved frame

Provenance:

Comissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Hall

Castle Gallery, Berkhamsted

Private collection

This arresting portrait of the nearly 14-year-old Mary Elizabeth Hall was painted as a companion piece to a portrait of her sister Joan made two years earlier. With realistically depicted curls, an ear-length bob hairstyle and blue eyes, Mary wears a dark red dress and is situated against a dark background. Her lips are parted slightly, revealing her white front teeth and suggests an impatient character - Mary reportedly refused to stay and have her legs painted. Kelly's wife stood in to complete the commission, with the portrait initially being a full-length work showing a confident young girl in a dark red velvet dress, in a wide-legged stance. However, Mary was unimpressed with this and deemed the legs as 'imposters'. As a result, the rest of the canvas was cut away, leaving us with this more restrained bust-length portrait.

Sir Gerald Festus Kelly

Gerald Festus Kelly was born in London in 1879, son of Rev. Frederic Festus Kelly, formally the vicar at St Giles', Camberwell. He studied at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before moving to Paris to study art. He was influenced early on in his career by James McNeill Whistler and travelled extensively to Spain, America, South Africa and Burma which inspired a series of paintings of Burmese dancers. He married Lilian Ryan in 1920 and she became his model for a celebrated series of portraits which were exhibited under the title Jane. He also completed portraits of T. S. Eliot, Ralph Vaughan and Somerset Maugham. Kelly was a favourite painter of the Royal Family, serving as court painter during the Second World War. During the Round Table Conferences in London, he met Sao Ohn Nyunt, Princess of present-day Myanmar, and of whom he painted his most celebrated portraits.

Elected to the Royal Academy in 1930, Kelly served as the Academy's Keeper from 1943 to 1945 and was knighted in 1945. The artist John Napper worked as his assistant.

Kelly passed away in 1972. His works are represented in a number of public collections, including the Tate Gallery, which holds seven of his works. His residence at 117 Gloucester Place in Marylebone, London, is marked by an English Heritage blue plaque.