To the sky - posthumous portrait of Richard Pierrepont Lounsbery Perry by John St. Helier Lander, 1931

 

Richard Pierrepont Lounsbery Perry (26 Nov 1906, New York City - 26 May 1929, New Jersey). 

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John St Helier Lander (19 October 1868, Jersey - 12 February 1944, Witley, Surrey), British portrait painter. Born John Helier Lander, he added the "St." to acknowledge his birthplace of Saint Helier in the Channel Islands. At the age of seventeen he went to London to study art. A year later, he met Sir John Everett Millais - a fellow Jerseyman - who advised him to continue his artistic studies in Paris. There, he studied at the Académie Julian under William-Adolphe Bouguereau. But after a year, he returned to London and entered the Royal Academy Schools. He remained there for three years and then returned to Jersey to set up his own studio. He became something of a protégé of the Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey, Major General Henry Richard Abadie; when the latter returned to London, Lander followed. Through Abadie, the artist made the acquaintance of the leading British generals in the lead up to the First World War. Those connections provided him with steady work during the war and brought his name to the public's attention. In 1923 he received a silver medal at the Paris Salon and also painted the first of his important royal portraits, subject matter which would occupy much of the remainder of his career.