Lady Orr-Lewis, née Maude Helen Mary Booth 1917

Philip Alexius de László painted Lady Orr-Lewis, née Maude Helen Mary Booth, using oil on canvas. The colours are restrained, almost muted, and it's a reminder that painting is a process of layering and adjustment to find something that feels right. What strikes me most is the texture he achieves, especially in the shawl draped around her shoulders. It's so thin it's almost translucent, a delicate shimmer of gold that contrasts with the deep, velvety black of her dress. See how de László uses these material aspects of texture, color, and surface, and the physicality of the medium, to shape our emotional experience of the artwork. It’s a soft mark, a gentle reminder of the artist's hand. De László’s portrait brings to mind John Singer Sargent, both masters of capturing the elegance and poise of their subjects. Like their works, this portrait is an open-ended invitation, an exchange of ideas across time, embracing ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.