7732

REJECTED

Mrs William T. White, née Augusta Henrietta Roebling

Half-length to the right, full face, wearing a brown fur wrap over a simple black gown, a double strand pearl necklace and pearl drop earrings

Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)

Inscribed lower left: Study / de László / 1932

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 73: Augusta H.R. White April eleventh- 1932

Private Collection

Such was the speed at which de László worked he would often set aside a picture whose progress displeased him in order to start again on a new canvas or board. He stopped working on this portrait at a very advanced stage and uncharacteristically signed it and presented it to his sitter as a gift. The finished half-length portrait [7731] also shows evidence of later alterations by the artist, indicating that this was a commission that he found particularly difficult.

De László also painted the sitter’s husband, William T. White, in 1934 [7727] and their daughter, Margaretta [4165].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [7731].

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

KF 2017