Philip Alexius de László
Paintings
Princess Cecile of Greece
Philip Alexius de László MVO (30 April 1869 – 22 November 1937)[1] was a Hungarian painter known particularly for his portraits of royal and aristocratic personages. In 1900, he married Lucy Guinness of Stillorgan, County Dublin, and became a British subject in 1914.[2]
Early life
László was born in humble circumstances in Budapest as Laub Fülöp (Hungarian style with the surname first), the eldest son of Adolf and Johanna Laub, a tailor and seamstress of Jewish origin.[3] Fülöp and his younger brother Marczi changed their surname to László in 1891. He was apprenticed at an early age to a photographer while studying art, eventually earning a place at the National Academy of Art, where he studied under Bertalan Székely and Károly Lotz. He followed this with studies in Munich and Paris. László's portrait of Pope Leo XIII earned him a Grand Gold Medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1900. In 1903 László moved from Budapest to Vienna. In 1907 he moved to England and remained based in London for the remainder of his life, although endlessly travelling the world to fulfill commissions.[4][5]
Personal life
Mrs Philip de László, née Lucy Guinness, by Philip Alexius de László
In 1900, László married Lucy Madeleine Guinness, a member of the banking branch of the Guinness family and a sister of Henry Guinness. They had first met in Munich in 1892, but for some years had been forbidden to see each other. The couple had six children and 17 grandchildren.[6]
László became interested in Catholicism as a young man, probably through his friendship with the Valentins, an elderly Bavarian couple.[7] He was baptised into the Hungarian Catholic Church in 1894 ... "he never worshipped regularly but read the Bible and was a firm believer in God and the Christian story".[8] His faith was especially strengthened by his visit to the Vatican in 1900, where he met and painted the aging Pope Leo XIII.[9] László converted to Anglicanism upon his marriage, and his children were raised as Protestants.[10] At a lecture to the Fisher Society in 1934, he said "I believe that to worship nature is a religious duty. I see in nature the fullest revelation of the Divinity, and my faith is that only by acceptance of this revelation and by striving to realise it in all its perfection can I prove my worship to be sincere".[11]
Later life
László's patrons awarded him numerous honours and medals. In 1909 he was invested MVO by Edward VII. In 1912 he was ennobled by King Franz Joseph of Hungary; his surname then became "László de Lombos", but he soon was using the name "de László".
Despite his British citizenship, his marriage and five British sons, de László was interned for over twelve months in 1917 and 1918 during the First World War.[12] He was exonerated and released in June 1919. Due to overwork de László suffered heart problems for the last years of his life. In October 1937 he had a heart attack and died a month later at his home in Hampstead, London.[13]
In 1939, Portrait of a Painter. The Authorized Life of Philip de László by Owen Rutter, written in conjunction with de László, was published. In 2010 Yale University Press published De László, His Life and Art by Duff Hart-Davis and Dr. Caroline Corbeau-Parsons.[14] His reputation still remains largely as a society portrait painter, but well numbered amongst his sitters were industrialists and scientists, politicians and painters, men and women of letters and many other eminent, as well as ordinary, people. Family members and a team of editors are compiling a catalogue raisonné published online and in progress. His oeuvre currently numbers almost 4,000 works, including drawings.[15]
Laszlo - Mrs. George Owen Sandys
Winifred, Duchess of Portland
Mrs Hélène Kirwan-Taylor (1935)
Mrs Lydia Eustis is a lyrical artist and the wife of the Dutch diplomat John Loudon (1920)
Subjects
People painted by László include the following:
Count Albert Apponyi (1897)
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (1896)
Empress Elizabeth of Austria (posthumous, 1898–99)
Arthur Balfour[16] (1908, 1914)
Count Leopold Berchtold (1907)
Sir Henry Birchenough (1926)
Sir Ernest Cassel (1900)
Count and Countess Jean de Castellane[17] (1899)
Lady Castlereagh (later Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, 1913)
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland[16] (1912)
Sir Austen Chamberlain (1920)
Elisabeth, Duchess of Clermont-Tonnerre (1902)[18]
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge[19] (1926)
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston[16] (former Earl Curzon of Kedleston) (1913)
Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury[16] (1926)
George Claridge Druce, British botanist[20] (1931)
Sir Alfred East[16] (1907)
William II, German Emperor[16] (1908)
The Duke and Duchess of Gramont (1902)[21]
Prince Andrew of Greece (1913)
Princess Andrew of Greece (born Princess Alice of Battenberg; 1907)[22]
King Constantine I of Greece[16] (1914)
Princess Nicholas of Greece (former Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia)[16] (1922)
Queen Olga of Greece (1914)
The Archimandrite Gregorius (1894)
Lucy Guinness (Philip de László's future wife)[16] (1901,1902,1918,1919,1936)
Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst (1899)
Charles Holme[23] (1928)
Joseph Joachim[16] (1903)
Hudson Kearley, 1st Viscount Devonport[16] (1914)
Arnold Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle[16] (1916)
Jan Kubelik[16] (1903)
Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury[16] (1932)
Johnny de László (Philip de László's youngest son)[24](1919)
Stephen and Paul de László (his sons, 1910)[25]
Pope Leo XIII [26] (1900)
James Lowther, 1st Viscount Ullswater[16] (1907)
Earl and Countess of Mansfield[27] (separately) (Earl 1930, Countess 1927)
James Robert Dundas McEwen[28] (1915)
Mary Frances Dundas McEwen[29] (1913 or 1914)
Andrew W. Mellon (1931)[30]
Baroness Conrad de Meyendorff (born Nadine Vladimimova Louguinine)[16]
Lord and Lady Minto (1912)
Princess Charlotte of Monaco (1928)[31]
Prince Louis II of Monaco[32] (1928)
Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1924; former Lady Louis Mountbatten)[33]
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven[16](1910; when Prince Louis of Battenberg)
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1925; former Lord Louis Mountbatten)[34]
William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne[16] (1911)
Joseph Ferguson Peacocke, Archbishop of Dublin (1908)[35]
Professor Vittorio Putti[36] (c. 1925)
Mariano Cardinal Rampolla (1900)
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts[16] (1911)
Queen Marie of Romania (1924)[37][38]
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1910)[39]
Helen of Greece and Denmark (former Queen Mother of Romania) (1925)
Vita Sackville-West[16] (1910)
Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1898)
King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1927)[40]
Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain (painted 1910, 1913, 1920, 1927, and 1928;[41][42][43][44][45]
Queen Louise of Sweden (former Princess Louise of Battenberg; 1907)[46]
Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom[16]
Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (1929)[47]
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1937)
King Edward VII of the United Kingdom[16] (1907)
Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother[16][48][49] (1925,1931)
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (former Princess Elizabeth of York)[16] (1933)
King George VI of the United Kingdom (1931)[50]
Prince George, Duke of Kent (1934)[51]
Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll[16] (1915)
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (1934)[52][53]
Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia (March 1915)[54]
Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry[16] (1911)
Ignaz Wechselmann (1894)[55]
Notes
"The de Laszlo Archive Trust". delaszloarchivetrust.com.
Benezit Dictionary of Artists
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Kingsgalleries
Weekly Standard
"Photograph of László with his wife and sons".
Hart-Davis, Duff (2010). Philip de László: His Life and Art. Yale University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780300137163.
Hart-Davis (2010), p. 34.
Hart-Davis (2010), pp. 66–67.
Hart-Davis (2010), p. 71.
Hart-Davis (2010), p. 235.
"Parlour games". The Guardian. 20 December 2003. Retrieved 15 August 2007. The article states that "László had not only painted the Austrian foreign secretary, Count Berchtold, regarded by many as responsible for the war; he had also been ennobled by Emperor Franz Josef in 1912. After warnings, he was arrested in the summer of 1917 and accused of making contact with the enemy by sending letters to his mother and brother. He was locked up in Brixton prison and Holloway internment camp as an enemy alien. He didn't sympathise with the enemy: the range of his sitters reveals his even-handedness. He was released due to ill-health, but was not vindicated until the summer of 1919. He had been unable to paint anyone outside his own family for two years."
jssgallery.org
"De László, His Life and Art". yalepress.yale.edu. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"The de Laszlo Archive Trust". delaszloarchivetrust.com.
Laszlo; A Brush with Grandeur
http://www.jssgallery.org/ . Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Calvin Coolidge". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
Allen, David E. The Botanists, St Paul's Biographies 1986, p. 104
"Photo of the Duke and Duchess of Gramont". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Princess Andrew of Greece". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
The Studio, 105 (418), January 1928.
"Photo of Johnny de László (Philip de Laszlo's youngest son)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Stephen and Paul de László (his sons, 1910)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Pope Leo XIII". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
Scone Palace
http://www.jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Philip_Alexius_de_Laszlo/James_Robert_Dundas_McEwen.htm
http://www.jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Philip_Alexius_de_Laszlo/MaryMcEwen.html
"Photo of Andrew W. Mellon]". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Princess Charlotte of Monaco". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Prince Louis II of Monaco". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Joseph Ferguson Peacocke, Archbishop of Dublin (1908)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
""Vittorio Putti" by Philip de Laszlo (c. 1925) - Himetop". wikidot.com.
"Photo of Queen Marie of Romania (1936)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"hoto of Queen Mother Marie of Romania". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Theodore Roosevelt". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of King Alfonso XIII of Spain". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
Webshots Wallpaper & Screensaver. "Webshots - Today's Photo". webshots.com.
Webshots Wallpaper & Screensaver. "Webshots - Today's Photo". webshots.com.
Webshots Wallpaper & Screensaver. "Webshots - Today's Photo". webshots.com.
Webshots Wallpaper & Screensaver. "Webshots - Today's Photo". webshots.com.
Webshots Wallpaper & Screensaver. "Webshots - Today's Photo". webshots.com.
"Photo of Queen Louise of Sweden". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Duchess of York, 1931)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of George VI of the United Kingdom, when Duke of York; 1931)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Photo of Prince George, Duke of Kent (1934)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Philip Alexius de Laszlo's Princess Marina Sketch". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
"Philip Alexius de Laszlo's Duke and Duchess of Ken [sic] 1934". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
In the collection of the Estate of David Chavchavadze
Lord Leverhulme (1926)
"Photo of Ignaz Wechselmann (1894)". jssgallery.org. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
External links
Works by Philip Alexius de László (illustrator) at Faded Page (Canada)
de László Catalogue Raisonné website
National Portrait Gallery biographical profile and links to images; retrieved 15 August 2007.
Articles on de László, jssgallery.org; accessed 15 August 2007.
Interview with the Hon. Sandra de Laszlo regarding her grandfather-in-law's work and current appeal; retrieved 15 August 2007.
Royal Society of Portrait Painters' millennium catalogue; accessed 17 October 2014.
Portrait of Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary of Wales (Oil on Cardboard, 1907), npg.org.uk; accessed 17 October 2014.
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