Portrait of Mrs Robert Celestin Guinness (Dickie), seated half-length, wearing a red brocade stole over her black velvet dress, drop earrings and holding her pearl necklace in her right hand

In October 1934 de László recorded four sittings with his sitter, wife of Lucy de László’s nephew, Robert Celestin Guinness. He described her as: 'a great charmeur [sic] & flirt – she is most paintable – will get a good one.' The artist made two preparatory drawings for the portrait both of which remained in his studio until his death.

The artist evidently enjoyed painting the portrait and wrote to his sitter’s husband at Christmas 1935 with much admiration: 'Your so warmly expressed appreciative letter about Dickie’s portrait gave me much pleasure – [&?] glad to know that you think I have succeeded to trans-mit on the canvas her most sympathetic perso-nality. I can only reciprocate in saying it was a great pleasure to me to paint her portrait – I had a most understanding sympathetic sitter in her. We both much look forward to see you both in your home. The portrait in its permanent home.'

Letters in the de László archive show that an honorarium of £300 was paid for the portrait, a special price given that she was a member of the Guinness family. The artist typically charged £700 for finished portraits of this size.

Dorothy Bingham was born 15 May 1896 in Chelsea, London, daughter of Henry E. Bingham and his wife Emily Robinson. She married James D. Hyem in 1916, in Chelsea, and they subsequently divorced. On 24 December 1929 in Marylebone she married stockbroker Robert Celestin Guinness (1893-1970). He was the son of Geoffrey Gwynne Guinness (1864-1923), Lucy de László’s elder brother, and Severine Curutchet from Buenos Aires. She was known to her family as ‘Dickie’ and they remembered her as being vivacious and amusing, with an extremely warm personality, as well as a devoted wife and mother.
She died in a nursing home in Brighton on 1 May 1983.

We are grateful to Katherine Field for writing 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.