9473

An Algerian Woman from Biskra 1923

Half-length full face, wearing a coloured head-dress, earrings, necklace and bangles, a dark cloak with a red lining and metal clasps, her left hand to the brooch at her breast

Oil on canvasboard, 39.4 x 30.5 cm (15 ½ x 12 in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1923 / II Biskra   

Private Collection

In February 1923, de László took his wife on their first real holiday since the war, travelling via Paris and Marseilles to Algiers. After a couple of days in Constantine, they arrived at Biskra on 24 February. In her diary, Lucy recorded: “we reached Biskra about 2 o’cl. P.[hilip] at once on alighting from the bus, engaged a v. black arab to pose for him.”^[1] The following day, she wrote: “P. painted the Arab this mg in the garden here. He is excited about the colouring here” [11043].^[2] He made a second portrait of the man the day after, on Monday 26, “& now is painting his sister,”^[3] presumably the sitter in this portrait.

On 27, de László made one more study in oil, of a gypsy woman [9476], while Lucy was doing some sightseeing: “It was so picturesque, I wished for P. to see it. He has painted 4 heads since being here^[4] […] He revels in the subtleness of colour in this light.”^[5] 

This commentary and the present portrait illustrate well why de László was attracted to Africa and the Orient. He rejoiced painting en plein-air, away from the northern light of his London studio, and any change of scene that took him away from his commissions. Whenever he travelled, his passion for costumes and sumptuous fabrics could be fully satisfied. The combination of the rich teal blue, brick red, and yellow of the woman’s headdress, which tones with her jewellery and stands out against her complexion, must have particularly appealed to the artist. As he noted many times in his diaries over the years, he was attracted to dark skins, and the way in which they caught the light. A subtle use of lilac as highlight can be seen here, especially on the woman’s lips and temple.

This painting was presented by the artist to one of his patrons, in whose family there is a tradition that when he painted it, he was accompanied by a French doctor, who arranged that the sitter should unveil on condition that the husband was present.  In return the artist apparently made a drawing of the doctor’s head in his military cap and gave it to him. Lucy’s diary, however, does not record that story.

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923, no. 67

•Royal West of England Academy, 85th Annual Exhibition, November 1930- February 1931, no.111

•Victoria Art Gallery, Dundee, Exhibition of Recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de Laszlo, M.V.O., September 1932, no. 45

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London 1939, p. 348

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, ill. 102

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill.  131

•László, Lucy de, 1923 diary, private collection, 24-26 February

CC 2008