4375

Stephen Philip de Laszlo in Spanish Dress 1919

Standing three-quarter length wearing Spanish dress, with his left hand on his hip and his right hand resting on a table before him

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 67.3 cm (35 ½ x 26 ½ in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower right:  László / 1919 . I. 

Laib L9313 (353) / C19 (14A)  

NPG 1917-21 Album, p. 51

Private Collection

De László much admired the Spanish school of painters and in particular, Velázquez. He kept a considerable wardrobe of Spanish costumes in his studio and quite frequently asked his children, his friend Alfred Lys Baldry [3562] and other sitters with Spanish connections, to sit for him in various types of ruff and cap, cloaks, doublets and occasionally using a sword. The present black velvet costume with stockings and buckled shoes features in several other paintings [8426], [3564], [3562] & [4376] and the present portrait can be seen in de László’s painting of his wife in an interior [10449]. He also liked to use black and gold Spanish frames to offset these romantic portraits which were painted for his own pleasure. The costume the sitter is wearing remains in the possession of the family of the artist.  

The present portrait was painted during the last six months of the artist's period of internment, whilst he was staying at Littleworth Corner. Having been deprived of the opportunity to paint whilst imprisoned, the period whilst staying at his friend and solicitor Sir Charles Russell’s house, Littleworth Corner, between December 1918 and June 1919, was one of intense activity for the artist in painting these sensitive portraits and studies in oils of his family.

Stephen de Laszlo was born in Vienna on 6 July 1904, the second of the five sons of Philip Alexius de László and his wife Lucy Guinness. The artist and his wife brought their young family to live in London in 1907, having taken a house in Regent’s Park. Stephen attended Twyford Preparatory School and then Rugby where he excelled at rugger and busied himself making radios. He later studied in Zurich.  

On 14 January 1931 he married Edith Alexandra (Diana) von Versen [11084], elder daughter of Baroness Versen of Lancaster Gate, London. They had one son, Philip (born 1934). Stephen and his wife were great socialites and distinguished and amusing hosts at their own frequent parties. He and his younger brother Patrick [9205] set up a company called Hivac making and developing miniature radio valves. Although the business was not a financial success, it was later sold to Marconi who continued to make the valves and supply them to the radio industry. Later these miniature valves were to become a vital part of portable radio equipment for field transmitters and receivers in the Second World War. He also founded and retained a large sharehold in a company called Celestion which made loudspeakers. He was managing director at the time of his death, after which his brother Patrick took over. Stephen spent a few years in Boston working on electronics with the Raytheon company during the early 1930s. Here he increased his knowledge in decreasing the size of electronic components.

On 30 December 1938 he suffered a fatal car accident, skidding on ice into the path of a lorry at the corner of the London to Newmarket road at Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire. His wife died immediately, and he eight days later, aged only thirty-three on 7 January 1939 in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. They are both buried in Tilford Churchyard in Surrey, beside the graves of his parents and other family members.

PROVENANCE:          

In the possession of the artist on his death

EXHIBITED:          

•The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Autumn Exhibition, 1929, no. 242: Our Son, Stephen

•National Portrait Gallery, Philip de László, A Special Display, 27 March- 5 September 2010, no. 3  

•Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Philip de László “I am an artist of the world…”, 2019, no. 13

LITERATURE:          

•The Queen, 26 March 1930, p. 9, ill.

•Corbeau-Parsons, Caroline, Philip de László, Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 2010, pp. 8-9, ill. pl. 3

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 77, ill. pp. 76, 80                                                        

CWS 2008