SOLD TO BENEFIT THE DOMINICAN CONVENT IN FRANCE.
Philip Alexius de László, PRBA, 
Hungarian /...

SOLD TO BENEFIT THE DOMINICAN CONVENT IN FRANCE.

Philip Alexius de László, PRBA, 
Hungarian / British 1869-1937- 

Mrs Philip Astley, née Madeleine Carroll; 

oil on canvas, numbered '10' verso, 123.9 x 98.5 cm. 

Provenance:
In the possession of the artist on his death;
By descent in the family of the artist to the present owner.

Literature:
Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 81: ‘Madeleine Astley April 30^th’ [among signatures dated 1935].
Studio Inventory, p.2(10): ‘Miss Madeleine Carroll (Mrs. Philip Astley). Miss Madeleine Carroll, a well-known musical comedy actress and the wife of Captain Philip Astley, sat to Mr. de Laszlo for several sketches and a portrait of her by him were used by “The Women's Journal” in their series of portrait covers.’
DLA052-0030, letter from Captain Philip Astley to de László, 4 January 1935.
DLA052-0026, letter from Captain Philip Astley to de László, 31 July 1935.
DLA037-0029, letter from Marczi László to de László, 30 March 1936.
D. Hart-Davis, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, ‘De László: His Life and Art’, Yale University Press, 2010, p.265.
The de László Archive Trust, 'The Catalogue Raisonné of Works by Philip de László (1869-1937) [online]', no.3340.

Note:
Dating to c.1935, the sitter is presented seated three-quarter length, leaning slightly to the left, her head turned and looking to the right. She is wearing a deep maroon evening dress, her left elbow and right forearm resting on a small table, holding a fan in her right hand and an emerald crucifix hanging from a chain in her left.

In January 1935 Philip Astley commissioned a portrait of his wife, the actress Madeleine Carroll. This portrait was painted the year she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The 39 Steps’, his original ‘blonde.’ Astley first attempted to purchase a blank canvas offered by de László at a charity auction in aid of the King George’s Pension Fund but was unsuccessful. He was subsequently introduced to the artist by their mutual friends, the Earl [4263] and Countess of Cromer [4270] & [4272] and de László agreed to paint a portrait of Carroll for £500 (the equivalent of some £31,135 in 2025). This was significantly less than his usual honorarium in the region of 900 guineas, which he charged for the three-quarter length portrait of Mrs Battine [2800] in 1935 (the equivalent of some £58,846 in 2025).

De László found a sympathetic sitter in the actress, remarking in his diary: “I must get away from my usual portraits & she lents [sic, ie: lends] to it for movement & grace. To do something out of the ordinary she is a great help – intelligent & very sympathetic – I so much look forward to painting her.”

The artist made seven preparatory drawings and oil studies of the sitter in a deep red velvet gown before deciding on the pose. He wrote that he thought of Titian as he painted the velvet and felt he came close to achieving similar success with the fabric as the great Renaissance artist. After six sittings he noted in his diary on 7 May that he began work on a second finished portrait and the present portrait remained in the artist’s collection until his death.

Captain Astley was delighted with the finished work and wrote to the artist: “Madeleine always told me what a joy it was to sit for you, and she considers it a great privilege to have been numbered amongst your sitters.”

Madeleine Carroll was born on 26 February 1906 in West Bromwich, the eldest daughter of Professor John Carroll, an Irish professor of languages and his wife Hélène Tuaillon of France. She was privately educated and at fifteen went to Birmingham University where she was awarded a B.A. (Hons.) in French. She acted with the Birmingham University Dramatic Society before making her appearance at the Winter Gardens Theatre in February 1927 in The Lash. Her father encouraged her to follow in his footsteps and become a teacher; however she pursued success on the stage and screen.

Her early parts included ‘I Was a Spy’, and ‘School for Scandal’ before she was cast by Alfred Hitchcock in ‘The 39 Steps’ (1935) and ‘Secret Agent’ (1936). Carroll was one of the first British actresses to be offered a major contract in Hollywood, becoming the highest paid actress in the world. She starred with Gary Cooper in ‘The General Died at Dawn’ (1936), and with Ronald Colman in ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ (1937).

Carroll became a naturalised American citizen in 1943 and after the death of her only sister Marguerite in the London Blitz she volunteered for the American Red Cross serving in Italy. In January 1946, she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by the French Government and the Medal of Freedom in America. The sitter was also involved with UNESCO helping children whose lives had been shattered by war. Carroll returned to the United States in the fall of 1947 and resumed her career appearing on Broadway in ‘Goodbye my Fancy’. Her last film ‘The Fan’ (1949) was directed by Otto Preminger and she subsequently declined all offers in order to devote herself to her husband Andrew Heiskell and their daughter Anne-Madeleine (born in 1951). Although her acting career was relatively short, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her outstanding contribution to the cinema industry.

She was married four times: to Captain Philip Astley (1931-1939), the actor Sterling Hayden (1942-1946), the French film producer and director Henri Lavorel (1946-1949), and Andrew Heiskell (1950-1965), the publisher of Life magazine, with whom she had a daughter, Anne Madeleine in 1950. During her retirement she lived in Paris with her mother before moving to Spain where she spent the rest of her life. She died of pancreatic cancer in Marbella on 2 October 1987, aged 81.

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.  

Another portrait of Mrs Astley by de Laszlo, of very similar composition and dimensions, sold recently at Christie's, London, 14 December 2023, lot 69 (£63,000).