Interior with Viscount and Viscountess Lee of Fareham
- Artist: Philip Alexius de László
- Date: 1925
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The Courtauld Gallery
- Collection record: The Courtauld Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the *Interior with Viscount and Viscountess Lee of Fareham* by Philip Alexius de László, painted in 1925 in oil on canvas. The work invites us into an elegant drawing room that exudes quiet aristocratic poise. De László, known for his refined portraiture, captures the viscount and his wife in a moment of relaxed conversation, their languid postures hinting at a personal intimacy that contrasts with the formal setting.
The composition is balanced: the couple occupies a central axis flanked by a grand piano and a polished mahogany table, creating a sense of depth. Light pours in from a window to the left, illuminating the couple’s faces and casting subtle shadows that lend the scene a gentle, almost theatrical quality. The palette is restrained—soft creams, muted greens, and deep browns—yet de László’s brushwork is vigorous enough to give texture to the velvet drapes and polished wood.
Historically, this painting reflects the early twentieth‑century European taste for genteel domesticity, a subtle nod to the era’s lingering aristocratic traditions just before the upheavals of the Great War. De László’s mastery of light and his attention to the subtle gestures of his subjects make this piece a quiet celebration of refined grace and understated elegance.
See it in person
Interior with Viscount and Viscountess Lee of Fareham hangs in The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House, London. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
