7110

General Artúr Görgei 1901
Half length, seated in a dark brown armchair, in three-quarter profile to the right, head turned and looking towards the viewer, wearing a dark jacket and tie with a white shirt
Oil on canvas, 92 x 72 cm (36 ¼ x 28 ¼ in.)
Inscribed  lower left: László Fülöp / 1901

Inscribed centre right: GÖRGEI A.

Sitters' Book I, f. 50: Görgei Arthur/ Budapest, 1901 február 17, vasárnap [Sunday]

Private Collection

In the early months of 1901 de László drew or painted six portraits of General Görgei. The present portrait, together with the three-quarter length portrait in the Hungarian National Gallery [5367], is the most important of the group. In this portrait de László, with his great psychological insight, has movingly captured the old man's stoic calm and dignified bearing, implying that he has suffered much.

The present portrait was given to the General by the artist^[1]. The sitter, 83 years old at the time it was painted, was living in quiet retirement in Visegrád^[2] with his niece, Lenke Návay. Lenke was intensely proud of the portrait and anxiously followed the changes of ownership and exhibition history of all de László’s portraits of her uncle. She continued her correspondence with the artist for many years, keeping him abreast of the General's affairs, until interrupted by the First World War.^[3] Artúr Görgei died aged 98 on 21 May 1916, the anniversary of his recapture of Buda Castle from the Austrians in 1849. For full biographical notes on General Görgei see [5367].

PROVENANCE:

Given to General Artúr Görgei by the artist
By descent in the family
Mrs. György Radnótfáy, née Flóra ('Dalszi') Latinovits^[4]
Appraised at The Hungarian National Gallery, 12 September 1962
Listed, 1962^[5]
Offered at BÁV Auction, Budapest, 6 December 1962, unsold
Private collection, Budapest
Given to Cultural Heritage Office, 2001
Offered at Polgár Gallery Auction, Budapest, 1- 4 December 2008, lot 38

EXHIBITED:
•Glaspalast, Munich, International Exhibition, 1901, no. 1031
•Műcsarnok, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Tavaszi Nemzetközi Kiállítás [Spring International Exhibition], 1905, no. 76 

•Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, Berlin, 27 April-29 September 1907, no. 1771

LITERATURE:

•Ausstellungs Jahrbuch,Vol.I., no. 5, Moderner Kunstverlag Dr. Trenkler & Co., Leipzig-Stötteritz, 1907, p. 24

•Koréh, Ferenc, Különjelentés Görgei Arthurról [Special Report on Arthur Görgei], In: Koréh Ferenc Beszél New Yorkból  [Ferenc Koréh broadcasting from New York], Viza Kft., Veszprém, 2001, p. 81-3

•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat [Hungarian Fine Art Society]: Tavaszi Nemzetközi Kiállítás [Spring International Exhibition], Singer és Wolfner, Budapest,1905, p. 73, ill.
•Pester Lloyd, 13 April 1934, Eine Spende des Malers Pilipp v. László  [A gift from the painter Philip de László]
•Pesti Hírlap, April 1934, László Fülöp  Görgei Artur képét ajándékozta a magyar kormánynak [Philip de László has presented the portrait of Artur Görgei to the Hungarian government]
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Staughton, London, 1939, p. 209-10  

•DLA162-0119, Pesti Hírlap, 8 April 1905, p. 3
•László, Philip de, 1934 diary, pasted to endleaf, Vasárnapi Újság,  Vol. 52, no. 16, 16 April 1905, p. 243

Pd’O 2012