3472

Portrait drawing

Princess Louis of Battenberg, née Princess Victoria Alberta of Hesse 1907

Head only in three-quarter profile to the left, hair up and wearing a high-necked blouse or dress, an earring just indicated

Charcoal on white paper, 32.4 x 26.1cm (12 ¾ x 10 ¼ in)

Inscribed lower right: P. A. László / 907 VII. 

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 75: Victoria / Prinzessin Ludwig von Battenberg April 1 - 1907

Private Collection

De László’s successful exhibition at the Fine Art Society, London, in May and June 1907 established his reputation in England and encouraged him to move there permanently. This portrait was made soon after the exhibition, during the months he travelled back and forth from Vienna until he was able to settle finally in London with his family in November 1907. The Battenbergs, later Mountbatten, were very important patrons and, as close relations of the English Royal Family, aided his introduction to them. Edward VII commissioned a portrait of his daughter Princess Victoria [10303] just hours after the exhibition opened, followed by one of Queen Alexandra [7707] and then his own [7705].

Princess Victoria of Battenberg signed the artist’s sitters’ book in April 1907 during de László’s visit to Darmstadt, where he was the guest of her brother Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and his wife Princess Eleonore zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, of whom he painted pendant portraits [5937] & [5933]. She commissioned a portrait of her daughter Louise [3481], which was also completed during this visit.

The sitter was painted in 1923 in mourning [3498] after the death of her husband Prince Louis of Battenberg [3464] in 1921. The present portrait was in the collection of Nona Kerr [111228], who served as her lady-in-waiting for nearly twenty years. Nona wrote to thank the artist: “Thanking you again for the drawing which became mine after so hard a fight & which I am so proud to own!”^[1]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3498].

PROVENANCE:

Nona Kerr, lady-in-waiting to the sitter;

Earl Mountbatten of Burma

LITERATURE:

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 217

•DLA120-0087, letter from Nona Kerr to de László, 23 July 1907  

KF 2017