6872

Simón Iturri Patiño 1931

Seated three-quarter length on a gilt armchair, looking full face to the viewer, wearing white tie evening dress with yellow and white sash of the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica, the blue necklet and star of the Order of the Prussian Crown round his neck, the badges of these two orders just visible beneath his satin lined black cape, a pair of white gloves in his right hand, his left hand holding the arm of the chair, against a dark background

Oil on canvas, 130.5 x 98.5 cm (51 ½ x 38 ¾ in.)

Inscribed top right: de László / PARIS / 1931 / II 

Sitters’ Book  II, opp. f. 54: S.I. Patiño / Febrero 3/1931 / Paris

Private Collection

It is likely that Simón Iturri Patiño and his wife, Albina Rodríguez [6876], were introduced to de László by their daughter Graziella de Ortiz Linares, who had met the artist in Paris in 1928 and was painted by him in the autumn of that year.^[1] The Patiños subsequently commissioned him to paint a portrait of each of them and of their two other daughters. Having already painted the portrait of Albina Patiño in May 1930 [6876], de László had agreed in June to start the present portrait in October that year, but due to pressure of work the sittings were put off until February 1931.^[2] The artist was already planning his large exhibition at Jean Charpentier’s gallery in June, where the portrait was shown, and his stay in Paris was particularly fruitful.

In his 1931 diary^[3] the artist describes the warm hospitality^[4] frequently given to him by the family at their two homes in Avenue Foch, their helpfulness and their many visitors. On 31 January he travelled to Paris on the Golden Arrow train. Arriving at six o’clock in the evening, he visited Simón Patiño at seven to start to make arrangements for the sittings. He dined with the duc de Gramont and the following morning: “at 10 ocl I was at Patino’s House – Harwood [his studio assistant] before me taking with him all accessories, looked through rooms –  & could get in that large [….] House a Nord room. Patino dressed up as I last night suggested in evening suit with the grand cordon of Isabella Catholica & Commander of the Prussian Crown – (which I possess too – also the same grade of Isabella Cath.) at last looked over the House of Ortiz Linares The Son in law & - noticed their^[5] a High North window We all went over - & found that his drawing room will use [sic, i.e.’suit’] the purpose. Ortiz with great enthusiasme axepted – so did his wife – by 11.30 my studio was arranged & Did a fine drawing of him deciding the attitude etc.”^[6]

Thus the sittings for the present work and the three other portraits de László painted of the Patiño family^[7] all took place in Graziella’s drawing room at no. 34 Avenue Foch, rather than at Simón Patiño’s house next door, at no. 32.

As was de László’s custom, he painted Simón Patiño’s portrait in the frame he had chosen for it. In the entry for 2 February, he described the difficulty of placing satisfactorily the figure of the sitter in large compositions such as that one: “began This morning the canvas in its fine frame of Patino – hardly ever – do I remember have I succeeded to paint correctly the whole figure on the canvas well prepared to continue – the family was very surprised – a difficult person – small – no features – but expression.”^[8] De László  continued recording his impressions on 4 February “During the morning painted Mons: Patino – he is very patient - ugly man, but his exp[ression] shows his tenacity – intelligence – the portrait will be A-1. I feel happy in the family – they show me real esteem.”^[9] 

De László took great pains with this portrait. Although by the 1930s he was capable of painting very quickly, on 5 February he stated that he spent the whole day working on this canvas and “finished his h[e]ad”^[10] and by the 11th in the afternoon “finished old Patino- all his family came.”^[11]

A copy of the present portrait and its pendant, both made by the Spanish artist Enrique Segura Iglesias,^[12] remains in the same private collection as the original.

Simón Iturri Patiño, who was to become one of the best known business men of South America, an industrialist, banker and diplomat, was born at Santiváñez in the Cochabamba district of Bolivia on 1 June 1860, the illegitimate son of Eugenio Iturri, a Basque, and of María Patiño, from Cochabamba. Simón began his career as a clerk at a mining supplies trading company in Oruro. A quick learner, his talent for business soon secured him a more important post in the Huanchaca Mining Company. His next position involved a considerable amount of travel up and down the Pacific Coast, in the course of which he not only succeeded in adding to his capital, but in gaining a wider vision for the development of a large business. On his return to Bolivia in 1897, he acquired mining property in Espíritu Santo and further mining rights near the mineral-rich mountain of Llallagua. In 1900, geologists located an exceptionally rich vein of tin there. It was to be called La Salvadora [The Saviour]. With the foreign engineering expertise and modern machinery he imported, he was able to develop the area into one of the most profitable tin mines in Bolivia. Always determined to fight off Chilean interests, he acquired other tin mines, including the Kami wolfram and tin mine, whose products constituted an important part of Bolivia’s foreign trade.

On 1 May 1889 Simón Iturri Patiño married Albina Rodríguez Ocampo, by whom he was to have two sons: René (born c. 1892) and Antenor (born 1896), and three daughters: Graziella (born 1895), Elena (born 1902) and Luz Mila (born 1909)).

In 1906 he founded, as sole owner, the Banco Mercantil and acquired a large interest in both the Isoboro colonising company and the Machacama Uncia railway, which would connect many important mining regions. In 1909 Don Simón travelled alone to Europe to set up an office in Hamburg, which would organise the shipment of mining machinery back to Bolivia as well as supply minerals from his mines to Europe. By 1912 he had already become the richest man in Bolivia.^[13] [13] Keen to invest in his own country, he engaged engineers from the German firm, Orenstein und Koppel, to draw up plans for an extensive railway system.  Restrictions were placed on these developments as there was opposition to any further increase of his power.  Likewise, a concession was withdrawn to construct a railway from Cochabamba to the Mamoré River, an enterprise which would have connected land-locked Bolivia to the Atlantic Ocean.  In addition to his diverse business portfolio, he had interests in the company administering the monopoly of alcohol and spirits in Bolivia.

Because of the expansion of his empire and his international interests, from 1912 he lived with his family between Europe and Bolivia. His wealth made him a heavyweight in Bolivian politics and he was locally both admired and hated. By 1914 he had established the Patiño Mines Enterprises Co. office in the United States. A decade later he had bought out all Chilean interests in his mines and went on to buy tin smelters in England and Germany. Later he was to extend his mining interests in Canada and as far afield as Malaysia. By the end of the 1930s more than 60% of the world’s tin production was treated in his smelters, and he was nicknamed ‘King of Tin.’ His fortune was once estimated at $1 billion and a higher annual income than the Bolivian government.^[14]

In 1924, on his way home to Bolivia, Simón suffered a serious heart attack and was unable to return to the place of his birth because of the altitude. However, this did not prevent him setting up in 1931 the Fundación Universitaria Simón I. Patiño in La Paz, for the training of Bolivian technicians.^[15] He supported Bolivia in the Chaco War^[16] and, as head of a global enterprise, he continued to supply thousands of jobs to his countrymen.

While living in Madrid, he served as Bolivia’s Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain from 1922 to 1926 and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica, which can be seen in this portrait.  From 1927 to 1938 he served as Minister Plenipotentiary in Paris and represented his country at the Evian Conference in 1938.^[17] He became a collector of art during these years in Madrid and Paris. In 1939 he finally left Europe to settle in New York and towards the end of his life he moved to Argentina to be nearer home. He died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 20 April 1947 and was buried in the family mausoleum at the Villa Albina, Cochamba, Bolivia, which he had built for his wife near the place of his birth. She died in 1953.

PROVENANCE

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED

•Hôtel Jean Charpentier, Exposition P.A. László, Paris, June 1931, no. 25

LITERATURE

•Vecko Journalen^[18], April 1933, p. 16, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 222

•DLA081-0175, letter from de László to Simón I. Patiño, 27 June 1930

•László, Philip de, 1931 diary, private collection

SMdeL 2011