112197

VERSO

Study portrait

Count Albert Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein 1900

Head and shoulders to the left, wearing a dark cloak over his uniform, a sash from his right shoulder across his chest

Oil on board, 79.4 x 62.7 cm (31 ¼ x 24 ⅞ in.)

Private Collection

This portrait was painted at Éberhard [112821], the country seat of Count Albert Apponyi in January 1900. De László was painting the Count [111921] and his wife [111923] and made this portrait for his own collection. Mensdorff was serving as Chancellor at the Austro-Hungarian Embassy at that time. The artist made a second portrait [112825] during his stay which he presented to the sitter and remains untraced.

De László brought the present portrait with him to London in 1907 and accidentally used the verso to paint a portrait of Princess Victoria [10303], at the request of King Edward VII [7705].  

Mensdorff was painted again in 1902 [110975] and 1905 [4697] and these remain in the collection of a descendant of the sitter. A head and shoulders portrait, painted in January 1908, is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna [4694].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4694]. Recto is Princess Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary of Great Britain; Daughter of Edward VII [10303]

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. 102, ill.

We are grateful to the National Portrait Gallery in London for their support. The image above should not be reproduced without prior written permission from the National Portrait Gallery, London

CC 2011

KF 2023