Simon Elwes

Lt. Col. Simon Edmund Vincent Paul Elwes, (29 June 1902 – 6 August 1975) was a British war artist and society portrait painter whose patrons included presidents, kings, queens, statesmen, sportsmen, prominent social figures and many members of the British Royal Family.

He was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Elwes (pronounced "El-wez") was born on 29 June 1902 at Hothorpe Hall in Northamptonshire (also near Theddingworth, Leicestershire), the sixth and youngest son (two daughters were born later) of famed tenor Gervase Cary Elwes (1866–1921), and his wife, Lady Winifride Mary Elizabeth Feilding, daughter of the 8th Earl of Denbigh.

He was the scion of the recusant Cary-Elwes family, of which many branches are known simply as "Elwes", which includes noted British monks and bishops, such as Abbot Columba Cary-Elwes, Bishop of Northampton Dudley Cary-Elwes and Father Luke Cary-Elwes.

His niece, Polly Elwes, was a television personality in Britain.

Two of his grandsons are the English actor Cary Elwes and English artist Luke Elwes.

Elwes' mother was so determined to have a painter in the family she studied art and herself started painting while pregnant.

For his education Elwes first attended two Catholic schools, Ladycross School in Seaford, and the Oratory School in Edgbaston.

In 1918, at the age of sixteen, he was taken out of the Oratory and installed in the Slade School of Fine Art where Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer taught.

After the Slade Elwes spent eight years in Paris, first at the Académie Delécluse and then at the Academie des Beaux Arts.

While there he met a Belgian refugee, Mme. La Forge, who aroused his latent interest in painting.

La Forge gave him the run of her studio and encouraged him to start again where he had left off.

In 1920, Elwes began studying in earnest at Andre Lhote's Academy in Montparnasse, Paris.

Fellow students included Henri Cartier-Bresson, Conrad O'Brien-ffrench and Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson.

While in Paris Elwes did a black and white drawing of the Irish tenor and recording artist, John McCormack.

McCormack would say to his wife of Elwes: "This lad has remarkable talent and will do big things, mark my words."

From France Elwes visited art galleries in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.

In 1922, Elwes sailed to New York, having borrowed the fare.

He repaid the loan by doing charcoal drawings at $5 to $20 apiece.

During this visit he managed to draw President Harding from life.

In 1926, he returned to England and on 25 November married the Hon. Gloria Elinor Rodd (born 1901), the daughter of the diplomat and scholar, Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell.

In 1929, Elwes was created a Knight of Malta and four years later was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

After his return from New York a period of undistinguished hard work followed until his portrait of Mrs. James Montgomery Beck Jr. (née Mary Ridgely Carter) was hung at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1930.

A flood of orders followed the next day and continued to do so.

The following year Elwes showed another portrait at the Academy of Lady Lettice Lygon, the first of many aristocratic sitters that would include many of Britain's royal family.

Thereafter, his portraits hung in the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy every year.

From London's Mayfair to Manhattan's Park Avenue Elwes soon began to establish himself as a stylish, sought-after portraitist.

In 1930, Elwes was invited to paint Robert Baden-Powell founder of the Scout movement.

When asked by the artist in a letter how he would like to pose for this, Baden-Powell replied:

"My suggestion that I should be 'doing something' when sitting to you has a twofold meaning underlying it. One (entirely selfish) is that it is difficult for me to sit still and do nothing when I have so much on hand to do. Secondly, I (in common with many others) feel that (though it is very usual with portraits) to hand down to one's successors the representation of a man staring vacantly into space with hands lying idle, does not give a true picture of an active worker."

That same year he painted a portrait of the Hon. Lady Aitken.

In 1936, Elwes was commissioned to paint the then Duke of York, in uniform as colonel-in-chief of the 11th Hussars.

That December he was commissioned by the new King to paint himself and the Queen, of whom Elwes said, "No couple ever was more popular in England, even before this happened".

Two years later he was commissioned to paint another royal portrait of Queen Mary.

In December 1938, an exhibition of his work was held at the M. Knoedler & Co. Gallery at 14 East 57th Street in Manhattan which included that portrait.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Elwes initially joined the Welsh Guards.

A year later his portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Roger Chetwode was one of nine portraits chosen to be exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 45th Annual Show.

He was later transferred to the 10th Royal Hussars and was stationed in North Africa and Egypt serving as a lieutenant colonel.

After fighting in the battles of Benghazi, Mersa Matruh and Knightsbridge, he was made an official war artist by the local army command.

His role as a war artist was recognized when the War Artists' Advisory Committee purchased several of his works.