Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale

Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale — known as 'The Yellow Earl' for his preference for that colour in his carriages, servants' livery, and personal effects — was one of the most extravagant and colourful aristocratic personalities of late Victorian and Edwardian England. A keen sportsman, horse-breeder, and patron of boxing (the Lonsdale Belt was named for him), he embodied a particular type of aristocratic excess that became increasingly anachronistic as the twentieth century advanced. Lavery painted him in 1930, when Lonsdale was in his late seventies — a portrait of a type that had already become a period piece. The National Portrait Gallery holds this image of one of Britain's most flamboyant characters.

Lavery brought his late portrait economy to this striking subject — the earl's distinctive bearing and physical presence are the primary materials. The palette has the warmer, slightly more restricted quality of Lavery's 1920s–30s work. The sitter's face is handled with the directness of a painter who had observed countless aristocratic sitters without being awed by them.