Lot 513: Stephen Thomas Ward (1912-1963), Female portrait,

Stephen Thomas Ward (1912-1963), Female portrait, crayon, 45.5 x 30cm.; 18 x 12in. * Stephen Ward was a society osteopath. Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and many famous people were among his clients. He was also an artist and drew many famous people including members of the Royal family. Lord Astor of Cliveden was a patient of Ward's on whose estate he rented a cottage, which he used at weekends. He used to take young girls down to Cliveden and out and about in London, where he would introduce them to his influential friends. One of these girls, Christine Keeler, entered a relationship with John Profumo, the War Minister, at the same time as she was having an affair with Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet Naval Attache at the Russian Embassy who was engaged in espionage. When this was uncovered the Government was rocked to its foundations. Profumo lied to the House of Commons, resigning when he was found out. Stephen Ward was charged with living on immoral earnings, and, in 1963, on the final day of his trial he committed suicide before hearing the Judge pass sentence. Ward's drawing of Christine Keeler was bought by the Tate Gallery. The pictures of the Royal family were bought anonymously at an exhibition to raise funds for Ward's defence during the trial, they eventually turned up in the archives of the Illustrated London News.