Three quarter length seated portrait, the sitter is facing slightly to the viewer's left and is dressed in Chancellor's robes which are black in colour with a gold trim over a dark suit and tie. Has his hands apart resting on the arms of the chair, holding a piece of paper in his right hand

Robert Cecil, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, was the Chancellor of the University of Birmingham from 1918 to 1944. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937, both for his part in the League of Nations, and more specifically in the British League of Nations Union. He wrote widely on European politics. The artist, Philip de Laszlo, was a Hungarian-born portrait painter who became a British citizen in 1914. He was highly successful, and greatly sought after as a society portraitist. He is represented in the National Portrait Gallery with portraits including Arthur James Balfour (1st Earl of Balfour), Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary and Sir William Pulteney Pulteney. This painting was commissioned by the University of Birmingham in 1932.