Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1910s.
This portrait is in exceptional original condition...it is unlined, never been cleaned (it has been under glass until now) and is bright and fresh.
Signed and dated lower right.
This beautiful portrait is painted with great sensitivity to the boy's face then considerable brio to the rest of the painting; in fact, with such dash and verve that some hairs were displaced from the artist's brushes and they remain as he left them.
The time is 1916.... the middle of the Great War, and the boy's father was General Sir Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle (1864-1955), married to Leila Annette Brynt de Lisle (1877-1938). The general was a much decorated officer who had fought gallantly in Egypt and the Sudan. At this time he was General Officer Commanding 29 Division on the Western Front,
Christian de Beauvoir de Lisle (1911-1994) was a member of an old and distinguished Channel Islands family and, like his father he joined the army and saw action in another war, World War II.
At Cambridge University Christian was a member of the Oficer's Training Corps.
On 2nd September 1933 he was gazetted as a 2nd lieutenant to the 11th Hussars from the Cambridge University Contingent, Senior Division; his seniority was to date from 28th January 1932.
The 11th Hussars were, and are, a very superior cavalry regiment with a long and distinguished battle record. Christian played for the regiment's polo team and in 1933 was given a siver cigarette box inscribed by all the other rmembers of the team.
In WW II the Hussars were an armoured unit.
Christian was promoted to captain on the 11th January 1940 and went on to become a lieutanant-colonel. He was awarded medals as follows: WW II GSM with Palestine bar, 1949/45 Star, the Africa star, the DM and WM.
He died in 1994 and is buried in St. Giles Churchyard, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.
LEON SPRINCK was a fashionable artist of Russian stock, he painted many aristocrats and members of the gentry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries he exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. He lived at Portland Place in London.
SIZE: 31 x 27.25 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: by descent in the family.
Verso: the original frame maker's label for J.J. Patrickson of Chelsea, a specialist in making frames "in the Old Style".
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 1910s.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art Profile Page
Portrait of Christian De Beauvoir De Lisle 1916, by Leon Sprinck
