WILLIAM DOBELL

Smith & Singer are delighted to offer William Dobell's Lady Lloyd Jones (1951) for private sale.

By the time Dobell completed this dashing portrait of Lady Lloyd Jones, he was Australia’s most famous artist and his entries to the annual Archibald Prize for portraiture were eagerly awaited by the art world as well as the broader public – this portrait was included in the 1951 exhibition.

Lady Hannah Lloyd Jones OBE (died 1982) was the third wife of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, the chairman of David Jones Limited from 1920 until his death in 1958.  Born in Wales and the youngest of thirteen children, she and Lloyd Jones married in Chicago in July 1929, a week after Lloyd Jones’ divorce from his second wife was finalised.  Returning to Sydney in the early 1930s, the couple moved to Rosemont, a colonial-era mansion in Woollahra.

At Rosemont, Lady Lloyd Jones became an indefatigable hostess, holding receptions for local and visiting dignitaries, including Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies, Lord and Lady Casey, Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Noel Coward, all of whom were friends of the family.  Tireless in her support of charities, amongst them being the Royal Blind Society, Legacy and Barnardo’s, and a major fundraiser for organisations such as the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, National Trust, St. John’s Ambulance, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, she was a leading member of Sydney society and known as an arbiter of taste in matters of fashion, fine art, interior design, and gardening.

Sir Charles and Lady Lloyd Jones were important patrons and collectors of contemporary Australian and international art, with William Dobell as undoubtedly their favourite.