6521

Study portrait

Marczell László, Brother of the Artist  1919

Head and shoulders to the right, head turned to face the viewer, wearing a grey suit and a mauve tie

Oil on board, 50 x 40 cm (15 ¾ x 19 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / amsterdam / 1919 Oct.

Inscribed verso, on the board in de László’s hand: Portrait meines Bruders M. László / zur Errinnerung an unser / Begegnung in Amsterdam / nach 6 Jahren / 1919 Oct. 14 / P de Lászlo [“A portrait of my brother M. László,  as a souvenir of our meeting in Amsterdam after six years, 14th October 1919”].

Private Collection

The present portrait was probably painted at the first opportunity that de László had to travel freely after being cleared of the charges that led to his internment during the First World War. The László brothers met in Amsterdam rather than in England or in Hungary. British subjects were not allowed to travel to former enemy states such as Hungary until a peace treaty had been signed with them, and the Trianon peace treaty with Hungary was not signed until June 1920. Marczell László in turn, as a former enemy alien, would have found it difficult at that time to get a visa to visit England. Hungary was undergoing a period of political unrest in 1919: the Communist government of Béla Kun came to power in March but resigned on 1 August, and Budapest came under the occupation of the Romanian army from 4 August until 16 November, so that de László was probably worried about his family, and keen to meet his brother to be reassured about their fate.

Marczell ‘Marczi’ László was born in Pest on 7 May 1871, the fourth of the six surviving children of Adolf and Johanna Laub. He was two years younger than Philip, to whom he always remained very close. This is shown by their life long and voluminous correspondence. Marczi, like other members of his family, was fluent in German and would write to his brother in German or Hungarian, sometimes starting a letter in one language and then continuing in the other.  

Marczi’s early memories were of an unhappy childhood; he, like all his siblings, suffered because of his father’s difficult personality. He contrasted his own fate with his brother Philip’s ability to establish his independent path from an early age. Marczi had little formal education. At the age of 12 he was apprenticed to an upholsterer and later became a tailor’s apprentice. He had no interest in these occupations which lacked intellectual challenge and he felt unhappy in his work and disliked his employer. In the early years of the century he became involved in the enamel industry.  For a period of nine years he represented the Landesbank’s interests in the enamel industry in Hungary and Serbia. In 1910 he was involved in negotiations to form an enamel industry syndicate in Hungary, and he claimed to have played an important part in the establishment of an Austro-Hungarian enamel syndicate in1912. However, he was probably never cut out to be a businessman and he did not prosper during the First World War and its aftermath. He blamed his business failure on bad luck and on his own excessive uprightness and honesty. In the early 1920’s with financial aid from his brother Philip he bought an Ironmongery business (referred to in 1924 as H. Löwy and sons and Marczell László Ironmongers Ltd.) at Révay utca 20, in central Budapest. In 1927 the business was expanded to become a sporting gun and ammunition shop; Philip agreed to stand as guarantor for the company for £2000. By 1937 the company had six full time employees, but there were constant financial difficulties which Marczi blamed on his ill health, and he remained dependent on his brother’s financial help. This situation caused Philip de László much anxiety. He asked other members of the family to keep an eye on the business and fruitlessly tried to persuade Marczi to agree to this or to install an accountant or manager. By this time Marczi had become alienated from other members of the family (his nieces and their husbands) and they were hardly on speaking terms.

In 1906 Marczi married Irma Witzinger, an opera singer who was the daughter of a wealthy Viennese dentist. Their marriage was unhappy and they separated, probably at the end of the war. Irma then lived in Munich with their son Michael (“Michl”). Marczi made a number of fruitless attempts at reconciliation which were emotionally wearing. They were eventually divorced in 1928. Irma appears to have been a difficult person; Philip de László referred to her as a “devilish woman” and asked Marczi to return to him all his letters as he feared that Irma might sell them or use them against him. Marczi’s son Michael was a clever boy and passed his school leaving examination in Germany. He lived a very isolated life with his mother in Munich, and at around the age of 20 he developed schizophrenia and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital in Munich. Philip de László paid for his upkeep there.  

In the late 1920s Marczi fell in love with a young woman called Gitta who was already engaged to be married to another man, which caused him further unhappiness. He eventually (probably in the late 1930s) married Rozália Gaál (1902-1990). They had no children, but he and his wife were close to her brother’s children to whom Marczi left his estate when he died in 1940 at the age of sixty-nine.

Marczi had a keen interest in art and followed his brother’s career and his exhibitions in Budapest with close attention, often commenting on the pictures he saw. He sent Philip accounts about the openings of his exhibitions and cuttings of newspaper reports, and would ask Philip to send him any published reproductions of his portraits. He had a collection of about 50 of his brother’s paintings. Marczi was also interested in music, particularly opera; he described hearing Toscanini in Salzburg conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in ‘Fidelio’ as one of the highlights of his life.  

Contemporary photographs depict Marczi as a handsome and well dressed man wearing a monocle; according to a descendant of the family he strove to emulate the landowner clients of his gun shop in dress, speech and manner. However, in his correspondence with Philip de László  Marczi insisted that he would never brag about his famous brother or use his brother’s name to gain an advantage, and there is nothing to suggest the contrary. Among Philip de László’s many socially eminent friends in Hungary the only one with whom Marczi maintained contact was István Bárczy de Bárcziháza (Undersecretary of State in the Prime Minister’s Office), and in this case it was more at Bárczy’s initiative.

Marczi had an anxious, sensitive, conscientious, personality. He suffered much unhappiness and loneliness as a result of his marital problems and the absence and illness of his son. He had various physical symptoms and had an unsuccessful operation (probably orthopaedic) after which he became dependent on hypnotics. In 1932 he was seen by Professor Benedek, an eminent psychiatrist, who concluded that Marczi’s symptoms were psychosomatic and that he was suffering from Depression.  He was admitted to Benedek’s clinic in Debrecen where he made a good recovery. However, he had periods of relapse and in 1937 he was admitted again to a clinic on Margit Island in Budapest. There is little doubt that he suffered from recurrent episodes of major depressive illness.

De László painted a second portrait of the sitter in London [6610], one year after he had executed the present portrait.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED:          

•Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006    

LITERATURE:         

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.), De László in Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, ill. p. 15

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 178

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 52

Pd’O & CWS 2008