6724
ARTIST COPY of the portrait by Ádám Mányoki
Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania 1895
Head and shoulders to the left, full face, wearing a gold-embroidered dark blue dolman, the order of the Golden Fleece[1] on his chest, a dark red cloak lined with ermine fastened at the front with a bejewelled chain over his shoulders, and a fur cap.
Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 63.2 cm (30 ⅛ x 24 ⅞ in.)
Verso inscribed: II. RÁKÓCZY[2] F. / MÁNYOKITÓL[3]/ COP. LÁSZLÓ F. DRESDA 1895 V.
Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (Hungarian National Museum), Budapest
Történelmi Képcsarnok (Historical Gallery) on view at Rákóczi Castle Museum, Sárospatak
Inventory no. 532
In 1896 Hungary was due to celebrate the millennium of its foundation. The forthcoming festivities gave rise to a wave of patriotic sentiment, focusing on the great heroes of Hungarian history. Foremost among these was Ferenc Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania (1676-1735), who led the unsuccessful War of Independence against the House of Habsburg from 1703 to 1711. In preparation for the Millennial celebrations the Hungarian government wished to have a copy painted of a portrait of Rákóczi which was in Dresden, in the Royal Collection of the Kings of Saxony.[4]
On the recommendation of his friend and mentor Elek Lippich, the Head of the Department of Fine Arts in the Ministry of Education, the commission was entrusted to the twenty-six-year-old de László.[5] This assignment was an important step in his career. He travelled to Dresden in April 1895, where he met with a very friendly reception. He wrote home to his eldest sister Szeréna: “I arrived here safely to the warmest welcome at Ambassador Chotek’s,[6] whom our Minister had already informed of my arrival. Just last night there was a soirée at the Count's to which I was invited in order to meet the notabilities of Dresden [...] I was also received by the Court Chamberlain in the most friendly manner and I am already well ahead with copying the "Rákóczy" [sic] which I am painting in the Palace. For one half of the day I work in the Picture Gallery[7] where I have also been given a room to work in [...] It would be difficult for me to name the most beautiful among all the beautiful art treasures that are here, in the most interesting gallery on the continent - and you can imagine how wonderful it is to be able to study them here.”[8] In a letter to Lippich,[9] he relates that he found the Rákóczi portrait in very good condition. Mányoki's technique reminded him of the French School which was very much in fashion at the time, and he was convinced that Mányoki must have trained in France.[10] He did not like the style of the frame and he decided that he would write to Károly Pulszky, director of the Hungarian National Gallery, asking his permission to order a black antique-style frame in Munch, “so that I can hand over the picture properly completed.”[11]
During his stay in Dresden, de László took the opportunity to paint portraits of the Ambassador, Count Chotek [11319], and of Crown Princess Luise of Saxony [111454].[12] He also copied another painting in the Royal Collection, a male head by Paudiss,[13] which had made a great impression on him [112084] (untraced).
The original portrait was painted by Ádám Mányoki (1673-1757), court painter to Prince Rákóczi from 1707 to 1712. In 1711, after the Peace of Szatmár ended the War of Independence, Rákóczi went in to exile in Poland. Mányoki's portrait was painted in Gdansk (Danzig) in 1712. It is likely that it was intended as a gift for Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland,[14] who had backed Rákóczi when he emigrated. In the same year, on Rákóczi's recommendation, Mányoki was appointed court painter to Augustus. The portrait remained in the Royal Collection in the Residenzschloss in Dresden. After 1919, it was transferred to the Gemäldegalerie, from where it was acquired by the art collector Marczell Nemes[15] in an exchange. In 1925, Nemes donated it to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Since 1974 the portrait has been in the Hungarian National Gallery.[16] It is by far the best surviving image of the Prince, and is universally known in Hungary.
After leaving Dresden, de László planned to paint a picture of Rákóczi in exile in Rodostó (Tekirdağ, in Turkey). He never completed the picture, but there exist four preparatory sketches [11746], [11764], [11766] and [11768]. In 1896 de László painted an original portrait of Rákóczi [6727] which was commissioned by the county of Zemplén as part of the Millennium celebrations.
For biographical notes on Rákóczi, see [6727].
LITERATURE:
•List of Works of Art in the Historical Gallery, Budapest, 1907, p. 66
•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 44
•Vasárnapi Újság (Sunday Newspaper), Issue 15, 14 April 1907, p. 295
•Schleinitz, Otto (von), Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1913 pp. 32-34
•Works of Art in the National Museum of Fine Arts, Vol. IV., Hungarian Historical Gallery, Budapest, 1915, p. 43
•Catalogue of the Hungarian Historical Gallery, Budapest, 1922, p. 22
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, pp. 149-150, 153
•István Németh, Marcell Nemes and the Art of the Rákóczi Era, in: Studia Caroliensia, Issue 3-4, 2004, p. 104
•DLA162-0438, Pesti Hírlap, 26 March 1895, p. 6
•NSzL150-0020, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 20 April 1895
•NSzL150-0021, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 9 May 1895
•DLA043-0055, letter from de László to Szeréna and Gyula Krämer, 28 April 1895
•DLA029-0152, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 18 October 1895
•DLA162-0078, Pesti Hírlap, 5 June 1907, p. 7
•DLA140-0202, The American Review of Reviews, May 1908, p. 550
Pd’O & BS 2011
[1] Bestowed on him by King Philip V. of Spain in 1708.
[2] His name was often incorrectly spelt with a 'y'.
[3] By Mányoki.
[4] This portrait was unknown in Hungary until 1892, when it was discovered in Dresden by Sándor Nyári, an art historian who in 1894 was appointed Deputy Keeper and later Keeper of the Országos Képtár (National Gallery), the predecessor of the Museum of Fine Arts. He was a friend of de László, who dedicated to Nyári a portrait of their mutual friend and mentor, Bishop Bubics of Kassa [2913]
[5] Letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 26 April 1895. Quoted by Rutter, op. cit., pp. 149-150.
[6] Count Bohuslav Chotek de Chetkova et Vojnin (1829-1896), Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the Court of Saxony. His daughter Sophie married Archduke Franz Ferdinand and was assassinated with him at Sarajevo.
[7] The famous Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.
[8] DLA043-0055, letter from de László to Szeréna and Gyula Krämer, 28 April 1895.
[9] Letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 20 April 1895. National Széchenyi Library, Budapest.
[10] In fact Mányoki trained in Hamburg under Andreas Scheits, and in Braunschweig, where he acquired experience by copying paintings in the Salzdahlum castle of Anton Ulrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel whose collection included works by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas Largillière. There he acquired "a touch of the buoyant elegance of French court portraiture, detectable especially in the composition and structure of his pictures" (“Ádám Mányoki (1673-1757): Conclusions from a monograph”, by Buzási Enikő, in In Europe's Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki (Exhibition catalogue), Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 2003, p. 60).
[11] Ibid.
[12] (1870-1947) Her portrait remains untraced.
[13] Christoph Paudiss (or Pauditz), (c.1618 - 1666 or 67), a pupil of Rembrandt van Rijn, worked in Dresden, later court painter to Duke Albrecht Sigismund of Bavaria, Bishop of Freising
[14] Buzási, Enikő, Ádám Mányoki (1673-1757). Conclusions from a monograph. In: In Europe's Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki (Exhibition catalogue), Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 2003, p. 64
[15] Marczell Nemes (1866-1930), a well known art collector of Hungarian origin who lived in Munich. He was also a painter.
[16] Inventory no. 6001