CHARLES LACOSTE (1870-1959) PORTRAIT OF HUBERT... Lot 47

CHARLES LACOSTE (1870-1959) PORTRAIT OF HUBERT CRACKANTHORPE, 1895 Oil on paper Signed and dated lower left Oil on paper; signed and dated lower left 27,7 X 20,5 CM - 10 7/8 x 8 1/8 IN. Mr Frédéric Chappey confirmed the authenticity of this work. PROVENANCE Private collection, France. Poet, essayist and short story writer, Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe was born in 1870 in the London of the Victorian era. The son of Montague Hughes Cookson, a descendant of the prestigious Montague family, and Blanche Crackanthorpe (née Holt), a renowned author, Hubert Crackanthorpe could not escape a literary career. He was also related to William Wordsworth (1770-1850), the English romantic poet and founder of the Literary Society. Hubert Crackanthorpe first travelled to France in 1889 where he stayed in the small Béarn town of Orthez, following a broken relationship with his wife Leila Macdonald. It was there that he met Francis Jammes who introduced him to Charles Lacoste, thus beginning a true friendship. As a member of literary circles, he also met other authors such as Stéphane Mallarmé, the Goncourt brothers, Maurice Maeterlinck, and André Gide. The aesthetic communion between Crackanthorpe, Mallarmé and Jammes ended with the publication of Francis Jammes' first poetry collections, which he dedicated to Crackanthorpe. Charles Lacoste visited Hubert Crackanthorpe several times in London between 1894 and 1896. It is probably during one of his stays with Crackanthorpe in London that Charles Lacoste painted the portrait of his host that we present here. Charles Lacoste was able to capture, with great elegance, in his portrait all the torment and psychological complexity of Crackanthorpe. Indeed, the latter was to be found drowned in the Seine, without really knowing whether it was an accident or a suicide.