112504

Preparatory work

Countess Stefanie Mailáth de Székhely 1896

Head only, full face to the viewer, long blond hair tied with a pink ribbon, a pink blouse or dress with a white collar just visible

Oil on canvas, 41 x 35 cm (16 ⅛ x 13 ¾ in.) oval

Private Collection

De László’s double portrait of Erzsébet and Stefanie Mailáth [13008] was one of the most important commissions of his early career and introduced him to a new source of patrons from the Hungarian aristocracy. This study of Stefanie was a preparatory work for the finished picture. The highly finished brushwork of the face in contrast to that of the rest of the picture is suggestive of the study portraits that were so prevalent in the artist’s later career. This picture and that of  Erzsébet [112504] could be considered among the earliest examples of this type in the artist’s oeuvre. It is thought that de László presented the sitter’s father Count József Mailáth [110819] with these two portraits as a souvenir of the time he spent with them in 1896-1897 painting nine portraits of the family at their family estate in Perbenyik, now in Slovakia.

For biographical notes on the sitter and more about the Mailáth commissions, see [13008].

PROVENANCE:

Count József Mailáth

LITERATURE:

•DLA030-0015, letter from József Mailáth to de László, 23 January 1928

•Cap György: Élet a kastélyban. A székhelyi gróf Mailáth család és a perbenyiki kastély története (Life in the Château. The Family History of the Counts Mailáth de Székhely and the Château of Perbenyik) Nemzetstratégiai kutatóintézet,  Budapest, 2008, p. 264 ill.

KF & Pd’O 2017