111018

UNTRACED

Caroline Kestranek 1904

Half-length, turned slightly to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a dark dress with a brooch and a long necklace

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: László FE / Vienna / 904 / X-mas

Sitters’ Book I, f. 42: Caroline Kestranek

The sitter was the sister of de László’s friend and mentor Bishop Vilmos Fraknói,^[1] whom the artist had first painted in 1899 [111904]. By 1904 Caroline Kestranek, a widow since 1890, was the veritable matriarch of the family which had become so important to de László through the number of contacts and subsequent commissions he had gained through them. The present portrait was probably painted as a Christmas present for her son Wilhelm (en famille also known as Vilmos) Kestranek whose wife Mizzi had been painted two years earlier [111271] and who himself sat to de László in 1908 [111270]. At least that is what Wilhelm’s warm words in an undated letter to the artist imply: “Under the first impression of the marvellous portrait of my dear Mama with which you’ve given us great pleasure, I would like to thank you warmly. I’m deeply in your debt.”^[2] In another letter his wife adds, “Only yesterday we received Mama’s picture from Löwy where it was photographed and I would now ask you dear Mr László to please find a place for it. Maybe you could come this week to help us.”^[3]

In 1907 the artist possibly made another portrait of the sitter, as in a letter to de László from November 1907 her brother, Bishop Fraknói, writes: “You would bring much greater joy to both of us if, instead of finishing my portrait, you would paint a rough sketch of my sister.”^[4]

When Caroline died in 1911 de László sent flowers for the funeral and received a very personal letter from her son Wilhelm who was extremely upset by the death of his “dearly loved and adored mother”. He thanked the artist who apparently had always been one of Caroline’s favourites and his wife Lucy “whom my mother admired”.^[5] 

Caroline Frankl was born in Érsekujvár on 22 June 1841, the daughter of Alexander Frankl, the estate doctor to Count Josef Hunyadi,^[6] and his wife Johanna, née Gerstl. She married in Érsekujvár on 18 August 1859 the Director of the Kaiser Ferdinand Nordbahn (Northern Railway), Johann Kestranek (1829–1890). They had seven children: Jenny (born 1860), Wilhelm (born 1863), Camilla (born 1865), Anna (born 1867), Lilly (born 1871), Hans (born 1873) and Ida (born 1876).^[7]

The sitter died in Vienna on 28 March 1911.  

LITERATURE

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, n° 106, Ph. A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1913, p. 86

•Bruckmüller, Ernst & Stekl Hannes (ed.), Durch Arbeit, Besitz, Wissen und Gerechtigkeit, Bürgertum in der Habsburgermonarchie II, Böhlau, Vienna 1992

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, pp. 54, 90

•DLA043-0080, letter from Bishop Fraknói to de László, 22 November 1907

•DLA031-0091, letter from Wilhelm Kestranek to de László

•DLA031-0093, letter from Maria Kestranek to de László

•DLA031-0106, letter from Wilhelm Kestranek to de László, 18 April 1911

ATG & CWS 2013