Description:

Margaret "Peggy" Astor Drayton Reventlow (British/American, 1915-2014), "Elephant and Turbaned Lady", 1964, bronze fountain, signed and dated on self-base, h. 32 1/2 in., w. 17 1/4 in., d. 46 in., together with a period photograph of the fountain in-situ, sight 6 3/4 in. x 9 3/8 in., framed (2 pcs.) Provenance: Estate of Margaret "Peggy" Chew Welch (1927-1976), Syosset, Long Island; thence by descent Note: Peggy Reventlow studied art with Felix de Weldon in Newport, Ann Norton in West Palm Beach, and at The Art Students League in New York City. Her works have been exhibited in London and throughout much of the United States, including solo exhibitions at Hammer Galleries in 1961 and at Tiffany & Co. in 1964. Reventlow was raised in a world of privilege, where young women were taught to sculpt and paint. Her father, William Astor Drayton, was the great-grandson of the United States’ first multi-millionaire John Jacob Astor, and her mother, Helen F. Squiers, was a New York socialite. Born in London, Peggy spent much of her childhood moving throughout Europe. As a young girl in France, Peggy was sent to Le Cours Maintenon, where she studied music, singing and painting. From there she attended Le College Feminin de Bouffemont, a finishing school for girls from “les grandes familles.” Peggy left France just before the Nazi occupation of Paris. During her escape, she encountered the Danish Count Court Haugwitz-Hardenberg Reventlow, a former diplomat who helped ease her passage into Spain. From Spain, Peggy went to Cuba and then on to the United States, which would become her permanent home. In 1942, she married Count Reventlow and they resided together in Connecticut until his death in 1969. Reventlow never remarried but continued with her artistic pursuits and, in 1974, began a pilot platform of recording books for the blind—later known as the Connecticut Volunteer Services for the Blind and Handicapped— a nonprofit program that would become her legacy. Reventlow was a long standing member of the Colony Club in New York City. Margaret “Peggy” Chew Welch, from whom the current lot descends, had an equally distinguished ancestry. Welch was a descendant of Robert R. Livingston, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, and the Earl of Sterling, the only Scottish peer to fight on the side of America during the Revolutionary War. Welch attended exclusive schools in the United States and in Switzerland, including Madeira, Vassar, the University of Lausanne, and, finally, Barnard College, from which she graduated in 1950. Like Reventlow, Welch had many philanthropic pursuits including memberships on the boards of directors at the Sheltering Arms Children’s Services and the Judson Health Center in New York. She was also a longstanding member of the Colony Club. Ref.: Boughton, Kathryn. “An Artist’s View: Peggy Reventlow,” The Bulletin, Litchfield County Times, Jan. 13, 2011; “Death Notices: Reventlow, Margaret (Peggy) Astor Drayton,” The New York Times, July 3, 2014; “Peggy Welch Succumbs to 6-month Coma,” Oyster Bay Guardian,” July 30, 1976; “Margaret Chew Welch, 49, Director of Health Center,” The New York Times, July 30, 1976.

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September 12, 2015 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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