11833

Study portrait

Marian Hoffman 1924

Oil on board, 73.9 x 61 cm (29 x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László  / London / 1924

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 39: Marian K. Hoffman 18 Feb. 24

Private Collection

This study portrait was painted in February 1924, during the sittings for a three-quarter length portrait of the sitter [9942]. That portrait was commissioned by Marian Hoffman’s mother before the sitter’s marriage in November. De László regularly made these study portraits for sitters he particularly enjoyed painting and they were often completed without their knowledge. It may have been intended as his wedding gift to the sitter. Both portraits were shown in the artist’s solo exhibition at the French Gallery, London in June 1924 and the gallery arranged for the shipment of the picture to the sitter’s home in America after the exhibition.^[1] A preparatory drawing for the three-quarter length is listed in the Studio Inventory but is currently untraced.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [9942].

PROVENANCE:

Presented by de László to the sitter;

By descent

EXHIBITED:          

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June, 1924, no. 28 or 50

LITERATURE:

•DLA107-0220, letter from the French Gallery to de László, 5 November 1924

KF 2017