The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 305. Portrait study of Marjorie, Countess of Brecknock (1900-1989).

William Bruce Ellis Ranken

Portrait study of Marjorie, Countess of Brecknock (1900-1989)

Auction Closed

March 24, 08:41 PM GMT

Estimate

800 - 1,200 GBP

Lot Details

Description

William Bruce Ellis Ranken

1881 - 1941

Portrait study of Marjorie, Countess of Brecknock (1900-1989)


signed with monogram and dated lower right: 1929

pencil and watercolour, heightened with white

19 x 17cm.

The sitter was the cousin and life long friend of Edwina Mountbatten. They were brought up together and during the 1920s were at the centre of London social life. This present study is for a three quarter length portrait which Lady Brecknock commissioned from Ranken, who was the painter to 'The Bright Young Things'. He will always be known through his group portrait of the Lygon Family who inspired Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. It was painted circa 1929 and thus contemporary with Ranken's portrait of Irene Mountbatten, Countess of Carisbrook, cousin of Lord Mountbatten.