112087

Duchesse Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, Comte Louis-René de Gramont, and Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont 1902

Seated full length in a landscape, from left to right duchesse Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, Comte Louis-René de Gramont, and Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont, a bearded collie resting at his feet to his left

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

De László was commissioned by Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont, to paint two monumental group portraits of his family for Château Vallière, the castle he built between 1891 and 1895 in the famous park of Mortefontaine.^[1] According to Francesco Rapazzini, it was Baron Siegmund Theodor von Berckheim who recommended de László as a portrait painter to the duc after seeing his portraits of Pope Leo XIII [4509] and Fürst Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst [4485] at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris.^[2] 

De László was asked to paint “un grand tableau d'une famille groupée un peu à la façon des tableaux anglais du dix-huitième siècle [A large painting of a family grouped in a manner similar to 18th century British paintings].”^[3] In the present portrait and the second group [112088], the family are shown in the grounds of Vallière, with the Château in the background. They featured in von Schleinitz’s Künstler Monographien Ph A.v. László, published in 1913: “László thought it natural, and rightly so, to change his usual custom in favour of a landscape scenery, an adventurous and decorative background, when the backdrop had to be relatively large in a group picture. Albeit not from the structural point of view, but from the point of view of the observing eye the inspiring background creates here a more lively relationship between the figures, by filling in the space between them. Such examples are provided by the fine and clearly organised group portraits of the family of the Duke of Gramont.”^[4]

The group portraits were his largest at that stage of his career, at over two metres high, and cost the duc de Gramont 25,000 Francs.^[5] De László spent nearly three months at Vallière between September and December 1902 resulting in a close friendship developing with Armand, duc de Guiche and later 12th duc de Gramont. Armand was an artist, distinguished scientist and man of letters and lent de László his studio at 42 bis avenue Henri-Martin when completing commissions in Paris.

The Gramont group portraits were not well received by art critics. Alexandre Arsène, in the Figaro, commented: “it seems to me that the art of Mr Laszlo [sic] is usually more ardent and vigorous.”^[6] In his memoirs, the 12th duc de Gramont himself noted that “Pierre Weber, art critic of the Paris edition of the New York Herald, entitled the paragraph describing these paintings: ‘A divided family.’ One recognised in these large compositions the mastery of Laszlo but he had made the mistake of making us pose separately, without ever grouping us, and he actually produced a juxtaposition of individual portraits rather than groups giving the impression of a natural union.”^[7]

In 1926, at the request of the 12th duc, de László cut down both pictures into six separate canvases. In the present picture these are: Antoine XI-Agénor [8752], his elder daughter Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre [4506], and Louis-René [8761], his second son by his second wife. The second group [112088] depicts the 11th duc’s wife, Marguerite-Alexandrine de Rothschild [6650] and their two children, Armand [11801] and Corisande [6625].

In dividing the pictures the artist inserted panels of canvas and repainted certain areas, including his signature, in order to disguise the alterations. Around the same period, the 12th duc purchased a large 18th-century Beauvais tapestry with the coat of arms of the Maréchal de Boufflers and his wife Catherine-Charlotte de Gramont. This was purchased in New York and hung in place of the portraits in the dining room at Vallière. The full composition was recorded in a photogravure published by Braun, Clément & Cie.

LITERATURE:

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien Ph A.v. László, Bielefed and Leipzig, (Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, pp. 67-9, ill. p. 50, pl. 57, in original form, prior to being cut down

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 210

•Gramont, Antoine-Armand 12th duc (de). Unpublished Memoirs, p. 131

•Clermont-Tonnerre, Elisabeth (de), Mémoires : Au temps des équipages, Les Cahiers verts, Grasset, 1928

•Chaleyssin, Patrick. La Peinture mondaine de 1870 à 1960, Editions Celia, 1993, ill. p. 32, pl. 56

•Arsène, Alexandre. ‘Société des Artistes français, Salon de 1903’, in Figaro Illustré, nº 159, June 1903, p. 19

•Rapazzini, Francesco. Elisabeth de Gramont avant-gardiste, collection Vies de Femmes, Fayard, Paris, 2004, pp. 112-20

László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, private collection, 27 December 1902 entry, pp. 40-41

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 81, ill. 42

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 56

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, pp. 61, 63, 66

KF 2021