110979

Bust of Philip Alexius de László 1927
by Zsigmond Kisfaludi-Strobl
Head turned to the right, wearing a jacket, wing collar and bow tie
Painted plaster, height 65 cm (25 ⅞ in.)

Göcseji Museum, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary

Inv. no. 76.3.94

In September 1927 de László received an invitation to paint a portrait of Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary [5684]. He arrived in Budapest on 12 September 1927, where he stayed with his friend István Bárczy de Bárcziháza, Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office [111342]. According to a report in the Budapest evening paper Az Est, he sat for the present bust by the sculptor 22 October.^[1] An accompanying photograph depicts Strobl, de László and an immaculately dressed Bárczy, in the studio with the bust, which was completed in three hours.^[2] 

The artist was introduced to Stobl by Ervin and Jenő Frim, whose mother was de László’s maternal aunt Madame Anna Frim. He accompanied them to the housewarming of the artist’s studio villa in May 1899.^[3] Between 1931 and 1938 Strobl spent the summer months in London, where he had a studio in Pembroke Walk, W. 8. A friendship developed between the artists and Strobl was a frequent dinner guest at de László’s home in Fitzjohn’s Avenue. De László was in turn invited to a Hungarian restaurant in Regent Street to meet other Hungarians.^[4] As a token of appreciation for his very favourable reception in England Strobl offered to present busts of Field Marshal Lord Allenby and General Sir William Birdwood to the Imperial War Museum, and to arrange this, de László introduced him to Lady Norman, a trustee of the Museum.^[5] 

As de László lay dying in November 1937 he spoke only in Hungarian. Strobl recalled in his memoirs that the artist: “always remained a Hungarian in his heart. When he died I was at home, I was going to return to London a few weeks later. In my studio at Pembroke Road there were many letters waiting for me, among them was one from Mrs  László. She asked me to go and see them at once if possible, for Fülöp was in a very bad condition and he talked in Hungarian all the time which they did not understand. Unfortunately I was late. He was already resting in his grave.^[6]

Zsigmond Kisfaludi-Strobl was born in Alsórajk in the county of Zala, in Western Hungary, 1 July 1884, the son of Zsigmond Strobl, a primary school teacher, and his wife Rozália Hampó. He began his training as a sculptor at the age of 17 at the School of Applied Arts in Budapest, where de László had also studied in 1886. In 1904-1905 he went the Staatsgewerbe Schule in Vienna and then spent three years at the Mintarajziskola (the Academy of Art) in Budapest. His first success came in 1912 when the Hungarian State purchased one of his works for the Szépművészeti Múzeum (Gallery of Fine Arts). In 1916 he married Irma Mellinger, the widow of a sculptor who had died in the First World War. In 1917 he had his first collective exhibition in the Ernst Museum in Budapest.

During the summers that he spent in London between 1931 and 1938, he became a popular and successful portrait sculptor. Many of his subjects were also patrons of de László: the Duke of Kent [5931], Princess Alice of Greece [6615], Austen Chamberlain [3797] and Queen Elizabeth II when Princess Elizabeth of York [10531]. He also portrayed the playwright George Bernard Shaw, who became a friend and wrote the catalogue for Strobl’s London collective exhibition at the White Allom Gallery in 1935.

Strobl was unaffected by the political changes that followed the Second World War and made many important memorial statues. He visited the Soviet Union on a number of occasions, exhibited in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev and made a marble portrait bust of Marshall Voroshilov, one of the original five Marshals of the Soviet Union, its highest military rank. Strobl’s most famous work is the Liberty Statue on Gellért Hill, overlooking the city of Budapest. The 14 metres tall figure of a woman holding a palm leaf aloft is elevated on a pedestal of 26 metres. It was erected in 1947 and was originally inscribed “To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes (erected by) the grateful Hungarian People (in) 1945.” This was altered in 1993 to read: “To the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom and prosperity of Hungary.” At the same time a group of figures at the base of the statue, which included a Soviet soldier, was removed.

Strobl is estimated to have created some 2600 works in his career. During his long life he received numerous distinctions from three very different political regimes. In 1917 he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. In 1930 he was awarded the Corvin Wreath, a decoration established that year by the Regent, Admiral Horthy. During the communist regime, he was twice awarded the Kossuth Prize (in 1950 and 1953), and in 1958 he was elected to honorary membership of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He died in Budapest on 14 August 1975.

De László also sat for a portrait bust by W.C.H. King^[7] [13550], which was exhibited wrapped in black mourning cloth at the Wildenstein Gallery in November 1937, shortly after his death. In 1931 Prince Paul Troubetzkoy created an image of him sitting in a chair [11339], cast in bronze.^[8] De László himself made four bronze portrait busts: Baron Bruno von Schröder in 1917 [7028], his son John in 1917 [113132], his wife Lucy in 1930 [3382] and his friend the art critic and artist Alfred Lys Baldry in 1933 [3583].

LITERATURE:
•Az Est, 22 October 1937, ill.
•Pesti Napló Vasárnapja, 23 October 1927, ill.

•Búzá, Dr Péter, “Forgotten Buildings: Knight’s Castle in the City Park” [Elfelejtett Épületek: Lovagvár a Ligetben], a főváros folyóirata [Budapest Magazine], Budapest, May 1979

•Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, László Kostály, T. Mészáros László: Catalogue of the Collection of Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl in Zalaegerszeg,  Göcseji Múzeum, Zalaegerszeg, 2004, p. 32, ill.
•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons: Philip de László. His Life and Art. Yale Univrsity Press, New Haven and London, 2010, pp. 208, 282-283

•DLA034-0057, letter from Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl to de László, 30 June 1933

•DLA026-0073, letter from de László to Lady Norman, 22 July 1936




Pd’O  2018