JAMES MCBEY (SCOTTISH 1883-1959) §
HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF HORTENSE LOEB
£3,528
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale: 08 June 2023 | From 18:00
Description
Signed and dated 6 July 1931, oil on canvas
Dimensions
71cm x 61cm (28in x 24in)
Footnote
Note: In 1930 James McBey established a studio in Philadelphia, and a diary entry from the 3rd December of that year records that at a dinner he first met Marguerite Loeb, a Sorbonne-educated tobacco heiress with exceptional connections in the art world; she had studied book-binding in 1920s Paris, where she and artist Oskar Kokoschka had been lovers, and afterwards moved to New York where she established a photography studio on West 57th Street. Early in 1931, they travelled to Bermuda with Marguerite’s mother Hortense, and on the boat back to New York, James proposed to Marguerite. On Friday 13th March 1931, three months after the couple had first met, they were wed.
This portrait of Hortense Loeb, Marguerite’s mother, was made shortly after the marriage. The McBeys sailed for England immediately after their wedding, and this portrait may therefore either have been based on studies McBey made while still within the States, or perhaps was made from life during a visit from Hortense. The portrait is rendered with affection, and the subject appears entirely at ease. The ‘July 1931’ accords with her summer-y attire, and she wears a fashionable halter top, which, owing to the 1930s trend for sun tans, were all the rage. McBey’s linear brushwork eloquently describes the interaction of light with his subject, recalling his technical experience as a printmaker: many of his etchings use striation lines to indicate light sources. The deft, pared-back handling of shadow to the background and across Hortense’s dress is also characteristic of an artist used to working with intaglio.