4217

POSTHUMOUS

King Ferdinand I of Romania 1936

Standing full-length in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing full-dress uniform and decorations, holding his plumed hat in his left hand and a baton in his right

Oil on canvas, 190 x 114 cm (74 ⅞ x 45 in.)

Inscribed top left: FERDINANDUS I REX ROMANIAE

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1936 II.

The National Museum of Art, Bucharest

This portrait was completed nine years after the death of the sitter when de László visited Bucharest in early 1936 to fulfill a commission of three portraits for the National Bank of Romania. These were a three-quarter length of King Carol II [4220], a full-length of his mother Queen Marie [3211], wife of the sitter, and the present portrait. The artist’s Studio Inventory identifies those of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie as pendants, a claim supported by a contemporary photograph of the newly completed portraits side by side in identical frames. Measurements of the three portraits also correspond. De László notes in his diary that he was paid three thousand pounds for the three portraits.^[1]

He painted eight further portraits of members of the Romanian Royal family during his visit. These included: an unfinished formal three-quarter length [2961] of the Queen in full royal regalia, a half-length portrait of her in traditional Romanian dress [3207], and a study portrait of her in mourning [3208], two study portraits of King Carol II, one in hunting dress [3225] and one in naval uniform [3222], a half-length portrait King Carol’s son, Prince Michael [4218], and  two portraits of the King’s mistress Madame Lupescu [3237] & [3233].

Lieutenant Colonel Lerisanu posed in the King’s uniform for this portrait and there is a preparatory drawing [10596] which illustrates this. He also recorded the fact with his signature in the artist’s sitter’s book: Lt. Colonel Leresanu C. / 7. Feb. 1936. / Palais Cotroceni / Bukarest / Stood in uniform for the / posthumous portrait of / King Ferdinand of Roumania. Queen Marie’s diary entry for 3 February 1936 reads: “We also arranged that in the afternoon Jolly stood in Nando’s uniform, so that Laszlo had a living model and a large photograph head. And when I came home from my ride with Marie Flo^[2] he made an admirable sketch and quite found what he wanted.”^[3] 

Five days later Queen Marie recorded the progress that had been made on the portrait: “Sat for a while in the studio whilst Laszlo painted at the picture of Nando. He slightly modified the attitude which he had made rather too martial, not quite keeping with his extreme modesty.”^[4]

Prince Ferdinand ‘Nando’ Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern was born 24 August 1865, in Sigmaringen, Germany, the second son of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1835-1905) and his wife Princess Antonia of Portugal (1845-1913), daughter of King Ferdinand II and Queen Maria of Portugal. He attended the Military Academy in Kassel and served for two years in the Prussian Army. In 1886 his paternal uncle, King Carol I, brought him to Romania as his own daughter, Princess Marie, had died in 1874. He continued his Economic and Political Sciences studies in Düsseldorf, while learning the Romanian language and literature, and the history and geography of his new country. He was adopted as Carol’s heir and became Crown Prince of Romania in 1889. He was a shy, indecisive and timid man whose interest was more in botany than in statecraft.

Ferdinand fell in love with Heléne Vacaresco, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth,^[5] but as heir presumptive he was refused permission to marry her. She was exiled to France where she died in 1947. On 10 January 1893 he married Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria, daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II. They had 3 sons, Carol (born 1893), Nicholas (born 1903) and Mircea (born 1913) and three daughters, Elisabeta (born 1894), Maria (born 1900), and Ileana (born 1909).

Ferdinand succeeded to the throne on King Carol’s death in October 1914. Queen Marie was an intelligent woman and a dominant personality who was often the driving force behind important state decisions. Politically, King Ferdinand was also dependent on his advisor, Prince Barbu Ştirbey, who was the Queen’s lover, she and her husband having gradually become estranged.    

Romania was at first neutral in the First World War, before joining the Allied powers in August 1916. Bucharest was then occupied by the Germans forcing Ferdinand and his government to move to Iaşi in the province of Moldavia. In March 1918 Romania surrendered to the Central Powers but rejoined the Allies in November, just before the end of the war. As a result Romania was awarded Transylvania, Bessarabia and other territories at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. This became known as “The Great Union” and doubled the size of the Kingdom. In October 1922 Ferdinand was crowned ‘King of All Roumanians, from Nistru to Tisa.’  

In 1925 Ferdinand’s eldest son, Crown Prince Carol, renounced the right of succession and his grandson Prince Michael aged four was declared the heir apparent in January 1926. Soon after, Ferdinand’s health deteriorated and he developed inoperable cancer of the colon. He died at Pelişor Palace in Sinaia on 20 July 1927 and was succeeded by the five-year-old Prince Michael, assisted by a Regency Council.  He was buried at the Cathedral Curtea de Argeş, burial place of Romanian Royalty.

PROVENANCE:

Commissioned by The National Bank of Roumania

EXHIBITED:

•Muzeul de Artă Constanţa, Balcicul în pictura românească, November 2003-January 2004

LITERATURE:

•Roumania, Queen Marie (of). Diaries, Vol. III 195, rola 489, pp. 79, 85, National Archives, Bucharest

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 139, 268

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 146

•DLA135-0067, letter from de László to Marczell ‘Marczi’ László, 12 February 1936

•DLA125-0006, Philip de László diary, 1936

SMdeL & KF 2014