2030

Sophica Jurgens-Roïdi  1919

Seated full-length on the edge of a table with her right foot resting on a low stool, her left hand resting on her knee palm uppermost, her right by her side, a fold of her evening gown in her fingers; her gown trimmed with white and carrying a full train

Oil on canvas, 217 x 107 cm (85 ½ x 42 ⅕ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / LONDON. 1919. VIII.

Laib L9935 (889) / C14 (5A): Mrs. Jurgens

NPG 1917-21 Album, f.91

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 12: Sophica Jurgens 3.8.19

Private Collection

At least two of de László’s portraits of the Jurgens family were destroyed during the Second World War, making this an important survival. They were excellent examples of his most powerful formal portraits, the painting of Sophica remarkable in that it was the only full-length portrait de László painted for a Dutch client.

There is no surviving correspondence between the Jurgens family and de László and we therefore do not know how they came into contact with the painter. The family was very active in Britain and must therefore have been aware of the artist’s work. The three portraits, and in particular the present one with its full-length format, had a Van Dyckian air and seem to belong to de László’s grand English style rather than to that of his more modest Dutch portraits.

There exists a contemporary photograph of Sophica Jurgens and the artist next to her portrait, taken shortly before its completion. It highlights how de László slightly perfected her features at a later stage [see above].

Two letters in the artist’s archive^[1] indicate that he considered exhibiting Sophica Roïdi’s portrait, by then Comtesse Charles des Isnards, at his large London retrospective at Wildenstein’s in 1937. That show turned out to be his last one, since he died a few days before it opened. The fact that he had her portrait in “red velvet”^[2] in mind for such an important exhibition bears testimony to the fact that he considered it to be one of his outstanding works, even though it was eventually not included in the show.

Sophica (or ‘Sofica’) Roïdi was born on 5 October 1892 in Athens, the daughter of Nicolas Roïdi of Athens (1865-1919), Secretary to George I of Greece, and Eugénie Constantinidi. She was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Nicolas of Greece before she met her future husband, Henricus Wilhelmus ‘Henri’ Jurgens (1892-1933) [10403], on a skiing holiday in St Moritz in 1918.

In August 1919 Henri and Sophica had their portraits painted by de László to celebrate their wedding, which had taken place on 21 June. A head-and-shoulders study-portrait of Sophica [2027], also dated 1919, was inscribed: My wedding souvenir. Antonius Johannes Jurgens (1867-1945), Henri’s father, was also painted and signed the artist’s sitters' book in October of that year [10402].

Following the wedding, Anton Jurgens bought ‘Huize Carré’ in Hees for the young couple, rebuilt it and renamed it ‘Villa Vreeland’. However, because Henri worked in France, the couple soon moved to Montreux. They were divorced on 20 December 1928, and in 1929^[3] Sophica Roïdi remarried, Charles, styled comte des Isnards (1876-1964), who had gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the French army. He was an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and the recipient of the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre, having excelled himself during the Great War as an aviator and commandant aéronautique. He later went into politics and assumed the title of Marquis des Isnards upon the death of his first cousin, Louis des Isnards, in 1946. The sitter died in Paris on 21 January 1942.

PROVENANCE:

Sold at auction by Beaussant Lefèvre auctioneers, Paris, 21 December 2011, lot 58

EXHIBITED:        

•Amsterdam, Spring Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures produced by Members of the Association Ars & Amicitiae, April/May 1920, no. 81^[4]

LITERATURE:         

•Grever, Tonko and Heuft, Annemieke, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Amsterdam/London, pp. 59, 60, 63, 66, 67, ill. no. 28

•DLA025-0065, letter from Armand de Gramont to de László, 16 September 1937

•DLA025-0066, letter from de László to Armand de Gramont, 6 October 1937

With our grateful thanks to Mr Olivier Mertens and Tim Boettger for their help with the biography

CWS 2008