3237

UNTRACED

Study portrait

Elena Lupescu^[1], later Princess Elena of Romania 1936

Half-length in profile to the left, three-quarter face turned towards the viewer, wearing a dark blue dress with a fur stole, a string of pearls and a small blue hat with a veil, her left hand raised to her breast.

Oil on board, 75.5 x 50 cm (29 ¾ x 19 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1936 III. 16   

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 78: Hélène Lupescu / 9 III 936

De László painted three portraits of King Carol II’s lover Elena Lupescu. He made this study as a souvenir for the sitter, after he had completed the formal half-length portrait [3233] commissioned by King Carol [4220]. The artist’s diary records that he wanted to keep the preparatory oil study [4709], for the formal portrait, himself: “The Red Lady’s sketch I began which – offer her – as a souvenir – one sketch the first I kept for myself – she looked picante [sic] in her small Parisian hat –with a veil.”^[2]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3233] and for King Carol’s portrait, with further Romanian Royal family portraits, see [4220].

LITERATURE:

•De László letters to Queen Marie of Roumania, dated 1 and 12 March 1936, Arhivele Nationale, Bucuresti, fond Regina Maria personale, V4673 & V4674

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 376-7

•Elsberry, Terence, Marie of Romania, The Intimate Life of a Twentieth Century Queen, Cassel, London, 1973, p. 263

•DLA125-0006, Philip de László Diary, 1936

SMdeL & KF 2014