11986

Landscape study

The Gardens of Hotel Timeo, Taormina, Sicily 1933

A shady tree-lined path, the trees forming a canopy, garden ornaments and foliage

in the sunshine at the end

Oil on canvasboard, 39.4 x 49.5 cm (15 ½ x 19 ½ in.)

Inscribed and indistinctly dated lower right: de László Taormina 1933 [ink]

Inscribed verso: de László / Taormina / 1933. Spring [pencil]                                         

Studio Inventory, p. 105 (621): The Gardens, Hotel Timeo, Taormina. On loan from the Trustees. Frame 621.lent to Mr.John de Laszlo, 3, Wyndham Place, W.1.

Private Collection

This is one of three small paintings that resulted from a brief holiday visit to Taormina that de László took with his wife, Lucy, in early March 1933. The two others are a view from a terrace overlooking the sea [5256], most probably also from the Hotel Timeo, and a still-life arrangement of orange tree foliage and fruit with hibiscus flowers [13239].

The present picture was included in de László’s last exhibition, which opened at Wildenstein’s gallery two days after the artist died. Even on his death bed he was making sketches of his wishes for the arrangement of the pictures on the walls, but in the end it was his son, Paul, who showed Queen Mary around the Bond Street rooms on 24 November 1937. The selection for the show indicates the increasing importance of landscape and still-life in de László’s output, as 26 out of the 63 paintings on view were subjects other than portraits.

It has been assumed that it is the present picture that was exhibited at Wildenstein’s as it is the one that de László’s widow chose to keep, no doubt as a memory of one of their rare times at leisure together.

PROVENANCE:  

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Lucy de László, his widow

EXHIBITED:  

•Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., London, Exhibition of Paintings by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., In Aid of the London Hospital and The Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, November-December, 1937, no. 42  

LITERATURE:  

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P. A. de  Laszlo [sic], London, 1969, p. 67, ill. pl. XV

SdeL 2013