Beerbohm (Max) Hugh Cecil Lowther, fifth Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944), black chalk and …

Beerbohm (Max) Hugh Cecil Lowther, fifth Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944), black chalk with watercolour wash on wove paper, signed 'Max' and dated 1921 in the lower left corner, inscribed in ink 'Deeply embedded in the esteem and affection of the British Public', and with further ink dedication to 'Sir John Rothenstein/ an ideal to be followed', sheet 313 x 194 mm (12 1/4 x 7 5/8 in), under glass, some signs of very minor restoration to extremities, framed, 1921. Provenance: Sir John Rothenstein (British arts administrator and art historian, 1901-1992) Literature: Rupert Hart-Davis, A Catalogue of the Caricatures of Max Beerbohm, 1972, no. 973. ⁂ Hart-David records no less than 9 caricatures of Lowther by Beerbohm. Lowther was a keen sportsmen and hunter, and was chairman of Arsenal Football Club for a brief period in 1936 (having previously been a club director) and later became the club's honorary president. He was also a competent boxer and established The Lord Lonsdale Challenge Belt, commonly known as the Lonsdale Belt, the oldest championship belt in British professional boxing. In John Hall's 'Max Beerbohm Caricatures' the author writes that Lowther 'became Master of Fox Hounds of the Woodland, Pytchley, Blankney, Quorn, and Cottesmore hounds, [with H.E. Wortham describing him as] "the idol of the Victorian and Edwardian populace. With his side-whiskers, his nine-inch cigars, his gardenia buttonhole, he was to the crowds the perfect specimen of the sporting grandee"'. [p. 185]