Marshal Ferdinand Foch Country Life Magazine Portrait March 30 1929

Marshal Ferdinand Foch Country Life Magazine Portrait, Frontispiece, March 30 1929. LXV No. 1680

The featured frontispiece this week is a portrait of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, taken from a painting by Sir William Orpen.

• Subject: Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929), the senior French military commander who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies on the Western Front during the final phase of the First World War.
• Artist: The portrait is based on a painting by Sir William Orpen, one of Britain’s most prominent artists and an official war artist during the Great War.
• Military Significance: Foch played a decisive role in coordinating Allied strategy in 1918, contributing to the successful offensives that led to the end of the war.
• Personal Life: He married Julie Bienvenüe in 1883, and their family life was deeply marked by the losses of the First World War.
• Family: The couple had four children:
  • Marie Bécourt-Foch (1885–1972): Married Captain Paul Bécourt, who was killed in action in 1914.
  • Anne Foch (1887–1981).
  • Eugène Foch (1888–1888): Died in infancy.
  • Germain Foch (1889–1914): Killed in action during the Battle of the Frontiers at age 24.
• Legacy: Revered as one of the most important Allied commanders of the First World War, Foch became a symbol of military leadership and sacrifice in early 20th-century Europe.

This is an authentic original page from Country Life magazine, part of the iconic series often affectionately referred to as the “Girls in Pearls” portraits — elegant society images that captured a distinctive era of British publishing and portraiture.

Size: Approximately 13.75 x 9 inches (35 x 23 cm)

Condition: Very good for its age. As with all vintage magazine pages, light signs of handling or minor age-related blemishes may be present. Please review the large photo carefully for full condition details.

This original Country Life Magazine frontispiece portrait forms part of The Old Map Shop’s curated archive of society portraits published between 1897 and 2026.