Edmond Brock
Edmond Brock (1882–1952) was an English painter and illustrator known for portraits of high society and royal figures. Born in London as the youngest son of sculptor Sir Thomas Brock, he studied at Bedford School. He began exhibiting portraits at the Royal Academy in 1903, at age 20, and over the next few decades he showed more than 50 portraits there.
Brock also traveled to America to paint sitters such as Beatrice, Countess of Granard, Ogden Mills, and Marshall Field. His main patron was Lady Londonderry, for whom he painted many family portraits now in the National Trust Collection at Mount Stewart. In 1928 he illustrated her children's book The Magic Inkpot. Because of Londonderry’s connection to Ramsay MacDonald, he was commissioned to paint the Prime Minister’s portrait, which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1935—the last portrait of MacDonald as Prime Minister before he resigned a month later.
He also painted members of the royal family, including portraits of the Duke and Duchess of York and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, shown at the Royal Academy in 1932 and 1935, and a group portrait of the Duchess with her children. Brock painted several portraits of Princess Elizabeth before she was eight, and later portraits of Princess Margaret. In 1952 the Queen wrote that King George VI kept the portraits of Elizabeth and Margaret in his sitting room at Buckingham Palace. Brock stopped exhibiting after 1938 and died in 1952, aged 70. His birth name was Charles Edmond Brock; to avoid confusion with another artist named Charles Edmund Brock, the older artist used Charles and dropped Edmund, while the younger used Edmond and dropped Charles.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:08 (CET).