Léon Bakst, 1866 - 1924

Head and shoulders

Executed on cream wove paper. The right and left edges with a narrow margin of discolouration. The edges with artist's pin holes. A small area of staining to the bottom of the paper. A very few minor areas of foxing. Held in a simple wood frame under glass.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The father of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (1858-1945) was an influential political figure in the British Empire.  His distinguished career included posts as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under his future father-in-law, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, Secretary of State for India, British Ambassador to France, and Leader of the House of Lords in Asquith's cabinet.  He was created Earl of Crewe in 1895 and Marquess of Crewe in 1911.

In 1913, Bakst was commissioned by James de Rothschild (1878-1957), a cousin of the Marquess' second wife Lady Margaret "Peggy" Primrose, to paint a series of panels on the theme of The Sleeping Beauty for his dining room at 34 Park Street, London.  The seven panels were completed in 1922, delayed by the artist's ill health and the First World War, and are currently on view in the Bakst Room at Waddesdon Manor.  

Bakst had complained to his patron about the shortage of models in Paris during the war; Rothschild suggested using family portraits.  Dorothy de Rothschild sat for a preparatory sketch in Paris in 1918, when she visited the artist to review the works in progress.  That study and others are in the collection at Waddesdon.  

The Marquess appears in two of the panels, in the role of The King; other family members and the artist himself are also depicted.  The present lot is a study for the panel of The Good Fairy's Promise, the second of the series.  The Marquess as King presides over the scene in which the Good Fairy mitigates the curse of the Bad Fairy, promising that if the princess pricks her finger, she will only sleep for a hundred years (J. Carey and P. Plock, 'The Sleeping Beauty: The Good Fairy's Promise', 2012, http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk).