110592

UNTRACED/POSSIBLY STOLEN (1939-1945)

Cécile de Rothschild 1921

[Medium, support and dimensions unknown]

In November and December 1921, de László was extremely busy preparing an exhibition of his pictures at the home of his friend and patron the duc de Guiche, on the avenue Henri-Martin. De László often used rooms there as a studio when he was working in Paris. The exhibition took place 19 December and Lucy de László noted how hard the artist had been working in her diary entry of 20 December, “Laczi had done too much work - yesday was so inwardly excited, I could see it in his face - The pictures were 8 in all, only one of these (Pourtales [4848] was old – So from Friday the 18th Nov: when P. arrived in Paris till yesday morning the 19th Dec- P.  painted 8 pictures -!  Too Too much – 4 big canvases.”^[1] The present picture was included as Little Rothschild, Cécile being six years of age at the time of sitting. Her brother Élie [4893] was painted the next year.

Cécile Léonie Eugénie Gudule de Rothschild was born 15 March 1913, the youngest daughter of Baron Robert de Rothschild [111810] and his wife Nelly Beer [4623], and a great-granddaughter of the founder of the family, James de Rothschild. She grew up in the family’s Paris house at 23 Avenue de Marigny, and at the Château Laversine near Chantilly.

When the sitter was thirteen her father came home and told his children he had something beginning with a ‘C’, and that if any of his children could guess what it was they could have it. Thus Cécile acquired Cézanne’s Les Baigneuses, the first painting of her considerable collection, which would later include early Picassos, and paintings by Egon Schiele.

In her maturity Cécile lived in a luxurious apartment in the rue Faubourg St Honoré that had previously been the home of Coco Chanel. She led an unconventional life, was an avid golfer, a talented gardener (she worked on her Noisy-sur-Oise garden with Russel Page^[2]), and had a passion for motor-cars. She never married but was Greta Garbo’s companion and best friend until the latter’s death in 1990, enduring this role despite the star’s difficult character and notorious selfishness. Cécile was deeply hurt when she discovered that the actress had not bequeathed her a memento in her will.

Cécile de Rothschild died in France on 17 January 1995, aged eighty-one.

EXHIBITION:

•Private Exhibition at the home of the duc de Guiche, Paris, 19 December 1921

KF 2013