9724

Philip Alexius László 1911

Standing three-quarter length in semi profile to the right, wearing an artist’s smock over a white shirt, and holding his brush in his right hand and palette in his left

Oil on canvas, 122 x 86 cm (48 x 34 in.)

Inscribed top right: P. A. László / 1911 / V / LONDON   

Laib L5135 (783) / C18 (5A)

The Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Inventory 1890, no. 3576

This portrait was painted at the request of the Italian government for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was an immense honour for de László to be invited to add his painting to the ‘Gallery of Immortals’ in the Vasari corridor, in which hang the self-portraits of the greatest painters since the Renaissance, including Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Vélasquez, Reynolds, Ingres and Sargent. Lucy de László recorded the artist’s reaction to the invitation to paint the portrait: “he came on the invitation from the Uffizi!! he was out of his mind with delight!  Nothing cd give him more joy than this compliment!”^[1]

De László has chosen to pay homage to the long tradition of Grand Manner portraiture and his own position in its history. He has depicted himself with attributes inherited from the imagery of Renaissance artists such as Titian; a rich dark palette, the dark smock over a white shirt, the tools of his trade in his hand, and the intense gaze of the artistic genius at work. The combination of these historical elements is a rare occurrence in de László’s output. In the same year, he painted another self-portrait for the Nemzeti Múzeum in Budapest, and depicted himself head-and-shoulders, in modern attire wearing an overcoat and a trilby hat [11596], but with the same strength of expression as here.

De László was anxious to include the present picture at an exhibition of his work at Agnew’s in Bond Street. The private view opened 17 May and it is mentioned in a press review featured in the Nottingham Guardian.^[2] In his rush to complete the work he used egg white as a varnish rather than his usual, slow drying solution. He thought this alternative would prove satisfactory, but, in 1914, the director of the Uffizi notified him that there were distinct signs of cracking. De László visited Florence to inspect it, and, alarmed at the state in which he found it, handed it to a competent local restorer.^[3] 

Lucy de László, the artist’s wife, recorded the completion of the portrait in her diary entry of 29 May^[4] and reflected on its historic importance of the portrait: “This aft: Con Hill & I went to an at Home at Mde [indistinct] & then on to studio where P. was finishing his own portrait for the Uffici [sic]. We saw at the last strokes [sic.] & putting his name to this portrait that is to go down to generations! He was lessening the red in the face – It looks just himself – in a serious mood intention in his mouth - & a nice straight, direct look in the beautiful eyes -  He was v. done after it.”^[5]

In 1929, on his way back from Cairo, where he had painted King Fouad of Egypt, de László stayed in Florence and went to see his portrait again. He was shocked to see it more badly cracked than it had been in 1914: “The picture as such gave me no satisfaction,” he wrote, “I have changed much in my way of painting and propose to exchange it for another one which I am going to paint.”^[6] However he never found the time to do this. The following year, he wrote to his friend Vilmos de Ruttkay, who was about to visit Florence and take art classes there: “You are wise to go to Florence; you will be enchanted with it. The Galleries there are in many ways more perfect than in Rome, more centralized from every point of view […] You will see in the Uffizi my own portrait when I was younger with dark hair. Now I am beginning to be a decrepit old man, but with a young heart and with the same love for my work.”^[7]

The artist’s archive shows that he sent a number of dedicated reproductions to many of his sitters, including the Marchioness of Graham [4543] and Lady Helen Percy [6841]. This reflects how proud he was of the inclusion of his self-portrait in the Vasari corridor, but also how he used this great honour as an instrument of promotion.

PROVENANCE:

Painted at the invitation of the Italian government and given by the artist to the Uffizi Gallery, 1911

EXHIBITED:  

•Agnew’s, London, Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, M.V.O., May-June 1911, no. 23        

•Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Firenze e l'Inghilterra. Rapporti artistici e culturali dal XVI I al XX secolo, (Florence and England, Artistic and Cultural links from 16th to 20th century), 1971, no. 95

•Galleria degli Uffizi, San Pier Scheraggio room, Florence, Gli autoritratti ungheresi degli Uffizi (Hungarian Self-portraits in the Collection of the Uffizi Gallery), 10 October - 30 November 2013

•Budapest Történeti Múzeum (Budapest History Museum), Budapest, Festők a tükörben - magyar önarcképek az Uffizi Képtárból (Painters in the Mirror – Hungarian Self-portraits in the Collection of the Uffizi Gallery), 22 March - 20 July 2014

LITERATURE:

•The Studio Magazine, London, September 1911, Vol. LIII (53), pp. 260-269, ill. p. 261

•Képes Hét, vol. I, issue 2, 1 October 1911, p. 42, ill.

•Művészet, vol. XI, issue 5, Singer és Wolfner, Budapest, 1912, p. 172, ill.

•Williams, Oakley (ed.) Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, Hutchinson, London, 1912, pp. 241-4 and ill. facing p. 240

•Museum: Revista Mensual de Arte Español Antiguo y Moderno y de la Vida Artistica Contemporanea, 3rd year, number 8, 1913, p. 293, ill.

•Schleinitz, O. (von), Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1913, p. 131 ill.,

pl. 147

•The Graphic, 24 January 1925, p. 122, ill.

•Pesti Hírlap Vasárnapja, Budapest, 2 March 1930, p. 51, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 283-4 & 371

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 113, fig. 68

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 125, 136, ill. 75

•Az Uffizi Képtár Magyar önarcképei (Hungarian Self-portraits in the Collection of the Uffizi Gallery), Budapest, 2013, ill.

•Boera, A. Richard, ”The Rest of the Story: “Official” Copies of Philip de László’s 1908 Painting of Theodore Roosevelt (and More), Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, Volume XXXVII, Number 4, Fall 2016, p. 27

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 97

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 186, ill.

•DLA162-0359, Pesti Hírlap, 21 October 1910, p. 11

•László, Lucy de, 1910 diary, private collection

•László, Lucy de, 1911 diary, private collection

•DLA 1911 parcel, Vita d’Arte, ill.

•DLA 1911 parcel, Salonblatt, no. 12, p. 365, ill.

•DLA091-0100 Nottingham Guardian, 17 May 1911

•DLA loose material, The Onlooker, 26 August 1911, p. 373, ill.

•DLA162-0487, Pesti Hírlap, 29 December 1911, p. 7

•DLA019-0026, letter from de László to Vilmos de Ruttkay, 20 May 1930

CC KF 2012