Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer for sale this evocative, WWI pastel portrait by the artist Frederic Yates 1854-1919 of Major Charles Hodgkinson Smith, which is signed Fred. Yates to the lower left. Although the portrait isn't dated, as the artist died in 1919, we assume that it was executed during WWI.

Frederic Keeping was born in Southampton in 1854 and his family soon moved to Liverpool, before moving to America. For some reason the family changed their name from Keeping to Yates.

He studied painting in the Paris ateliers of Léon Bonnat, Gustave Boulanger, and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. In 1886, he moved to San Francisco where his family had settled a few years earlier. He married Emily, an American, in 1887. In San Francisco, he became a popular portraitist and taught at the newly formed Art Students League of San Francisco.

In 1890 Frederic and Emily moved to Kent where their daughter Mary was born the following year. The three of them went to America to see Mary's grandparents. Whilst he was in Hawaii, Yates painted the Hawaiian President Cole. They visited both China and Japan over the next few years.

Frederic made the acquaintance of the Dowager Marchioness of Downshire who became his patron and introduced him to London society. Yates was active in San Francisco until 1900, when he returned to England. Yates had a commission to paint the educationalist Charlotte Mason in the Lake District and he decided to bring his daughter up there. They lived at "Cote How" near Grasmere until 1906. During this period he painted the educator John Haden Badley. He was invited to America to attend the inauguration of United States President Woodrow Wilson and to paint his portrait. According to Armitt Library, Yates was given the flag that Woodrow Wilson rested his hand on whilst taking his oath of office. He died in 1919.

The Honolulu Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, London are among the public collections holding work by Frederic Yates. There are 21 paintings in public collections in the United Kingdom.

The sitter, Major Charles Hodgkinson Smith (1877-1952), was the eldest son of Major General Charles Hodgkinson Smith (1926-1897), who was in command of the Horse Artillery, London District at the time of his son's birth and came from a long military line.

The Major's military career commenced in 1899, when he joined the yeoman Cavalry at the start of the Boer War, receiving a commission in the Royal Artillery the following year and serving until 1904, when he retired in favour of agricultural pursuits at his farm in Buckinghamshire.

At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he rejoined the Royal Artillery (Reserve of Officers) and fought at Ypres, amongst other places. In 1916 he was invalided home, although he was later sent to Egypt with the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He served, therefore, in three branches of the armed forces, the Cavalry, the Artillery and the Air Force - and saw a great deal of active service. He was a Lieutenant in the Cavalry, a Captain in the Artillery and a Major in the Air Force.

He was awarded a number of medals, including two South African medals, the Victory Medal and the Crois de Guerre, and was made an MBE, then an OBE. He was mentioned in Despatches 3 times, once in 1917 (30.5.1917) and twice in 1918 (25.3.1918 & 1.12.1918). After the war he was active in the Boy Scouts Movement and was ADC for the Amersham area in 1923. He was elected a Member of the Royal Geographic Society in 1933. He married and had one daughter, but no son to carry on the family tradition of serving in the Royal Artillery. He died in 1952.

The pastel is glazed and framed in what is probably its original 2 1/4" swept, gilt frame. It will be supplied with new brass fittings, new brass picture wire and will be ready to hang.

Image size: 23" x 19" - 58.4cm x 48.25cm

Frame size: 27 5/8" x 23 5/8" - 70.15cm x 60cm

Medium: Pastels

Condition: Very good. The frame is also in very good condition, with no losses.