Neville Stephen Lytton (1879-1951) Female Nude & 1937

Bulwer-Lytton (6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951), 3rd Earl of Lytton, Member of the Order of the British Empire, was a British artist. He is the younger son of Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, and the grandson of famous novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Rosina Doyle Wheeler. Neville Lytton was born in India, while his father was viceroy. He studied at Eton and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. During the First World War, Neville Lytton served as an officer on the Western Front and played an active role in particular in the Somme and in Amiens. According to contemporary accounts,1 he was regarded as "a gentleman of the old school" and served "with gallantry and distinction". For his services, the French government awarded him the distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Soon after the end of the war, the Imperial War Museum and the Musée de la Guerre, France, acquired examples of his art, several of which apparently traveled with him. A mural by Lytton reflecting his experience of war can be seen on display in the Victory Hall in the village of Balcombe, West Sussex. Between approximately 1900 and 1940, Lytton exhibited his works in the most important galleries such as the Alpine Club Gallery, the Beaux Arts Gallery, the Dowdeswell Galleries, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the New English Art Club, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and at the Royal Academy in London. Neville Lytton was also elected associate of the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris, where he exhibited his works. He married Judith Blunt, later Baroness Wentworth, in 1899 whom he divorced in 1923. To this union were born three children, Noel Anthony Scawen Lytton-Milbanke, 4th Earl of Lytton and 17th Baron Wentworth, Lady Anne and Lady Winifred, inheritance from their maternal grandmother Augusta Ada Byron. A profile sketch of the Earl is on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Out of love for a young Frenchwoman, Alexandra Fortel, he decides to abandon his fortune and his aristocratic life in the United Kingdom. He remarried Alexandra Fortel, with whom he had a third daughter, Lady Madeleine Elizabeth Lytton, born in 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The count and his second family resided in France in Paris, rue du Val de Grâce. Considering the intimacy of this work, we can assume that Alexandra Fortel is the model.The fact that the cardboard is painted on both sides (on the back is a seaside landscape) reinforces this intimate character.
The couple will maintain many friendships within political, artistic and intellectual circles. Especially with Winston Churchill and Theodor Pallady. Signed and dated 1937 Dimensions: 46 cm x 37 cm Unframed Oil on cardboard