10633

Gerard Johan Philip Count Schimmelpenninck  1933

Seated to the right, three-quarter face, half-length, with a moustache, wearing a dark suit and wing collar.

Oil on canvas, 100 x 75 cm (39 ¼ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. de Lászlo get. r.o. h. L, 1933

Private Collection

After three decades of building up a considerable clientele in the Netherlands, the last portrait that de László made for a Dutch client was that of Gerard Johan Philip, Count Schimmelpenninck, whose niece Maximiliane de László had painted in 1908 [110992].

Count Schimmelpenninck was born in Amsterdam on 1 October 1851. In 1876 he married Jonkvrouwe Cornelia van der Wijck with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died at The Hague on 11 May 1929.

This portrait is unusual for having been painted posthumously from a photograph. De László rarely did this, as he believed that it was only possible to capture a person’s character with the sitter in front of him. In this case, however, he made an exception. In March 1933 the Count’s daughter Louise van Welderen, Baroness Rengers-Schimmelpenninck (1880-1975) wrote to de László claiming to be a great admirer of his works, even if she had seen them only in reproduction. Since her father’s death her desire had grown to have a portrait of him. She begged de László not to reply ‘no’ immediately and that if he at least gave it his consideration he would be doing her an enormous favour; she would help him with the correct colouring and the right facial expression.

Apparently de László was moved by this lengthy plea and wrote that he would consider it once he had received some photographs. From Louise’s second letter it would seem that de László has made clear his reluctance to paint from a photograph: “I can quite understand your objections and realize, that it is the glimpses of the character in the changes of expression, the colouring, the movements, in fact, life itself, that give interest and inspirations to the work of a great artist.”^[1] It was for this reason that she had sent him informal snapshots rather than portrait photographs. De László finally consented. When the portrait was nearly complete in July 1933, de László asked her to visit London to approve it. She was very nervous about seeing the painting. A letter following her visit shows her worries were confirmed. The angry expression on the face of her late father had shocked her and de László had to change much. In improving the expression in the eyes, he used Louise’s own face as his example, despite her protestations that she had never resembled her father. When she saw the final version of the portrait, she was impressed and told de László: “Even in writing to you, I can hardly find the words to give expression to my gratitude and my infinite appreciation of the great kindness you have shown me in forsaking your principles and doing a thing distasteful in the extreme to you, just to give me happiness. I had always known it was a very great gift you were giving me […] but how great I only quite understood, when I saw you at work on it, and had to go through the ordeal of telling you almost everything was wrong about the expression of the face. […] And you were so patient and kind about it, I should almost have preferred you to be angry, I should not have felt such a worm!”^[2]

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, pp. 52, 75, 78, ill. no. 50

•DLA023-0144, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 16 November

•DLA025-0108, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 23 December

•DLA084-0030, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 2 April 1933

•DLA084-0027 & 084-0028, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 28 June 1933

•DLA084-0029 & 084-0031, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 23 August 1933

•DLA084-0034, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 15 September 1933

•DLA084-0055, letter from Louise van Welderen to de László, 24 April 1935

•DLA084-0055, letter from de László to Louise van Welderen, 17 April 1935

•DLA084-0033, letter from Henri Willem Schimmelpenninck^[3] to de László, 27 August 1933

CWS 2006