11596

Self portrait

Philip Alexius László 1911

Bust-length in profile to the right, head turned in three-quarter profile, wearing a hat, dark coat and tie with a white shirt

Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 46 cm (22 x 18 ⅛ in.)

Inscribed lower right: A Nemzeti Szalon-nak [for the National Salon] / London 1911 / & László F.E.

Laib L5426(656) / C18(4A) Philip de Laszlo / Self-Portrait

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery), Budapest

After his move to London in 1907 de László remained an honorary member of the National Salon in Hungary, an artist’s association founded in 1894. In 1911 he was asked to send a self portrait to be exhibited in their gallery at Erzsébet square in Budapest. The request was made by letter from his friend László Kézdi-Kovács [113202], a well-known Hungarian landscape painter whose portrait was painted by de László in London in late summer 1911 as a token of their friendship.

The artist’s wife Lucy recorded the completion of the present portrait in her diary 6 October: “I saw dear P. finish his selbst-portrait [sic] for the Nemzeti Salon this mg! He has bk soft felt hat on & looks rather fierce – The right edd: for Pest I say!”^[1] It is one of forty known self portraits he completed during his career.

De László’s brother Marczi, who lived in Budapest, wrote to the artist to tell him how much he admired the portrait hanging at the Salon but wished it had remained in their family rather than given away. He criticized the other works he saw there, writing: “It is scandalously bad, you mustn’t send your fine works to such an amateurish exhibition.”^[2] De László did not exhibit there again until 1924. The portrait was used as the frontispiece for Otto von Schleinitz’s monograph on the artist published in 1913 and on the de László Gold Medal awarded by the Society of Independent Artists (Független Művészek Társasága) at their 1930 exhibition at the Nemzeti Szalon. It was designed by Béla Pankotai Farkas (1885-1945), who was awarded the medal at the exhibition.

PROVENANCE:

The National Salon, Budapest;

Acquired by the Hungarian National Gallery

EXHIBITED:

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, 1911

•Nemzeti Szalon, Budapest, Tavaszi kiállítás [Spring Exhibition], 1912

•Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, The Museum Friends Association Exhibition, 1931, no. 51

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 48

•Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Philip de László “I am an artist of the world…”, 2019, no. 10

LITERATURE:

•Velhagen & Klasing Monatshefte, 26th year, issue 7, March 1912, p. 332, ill.

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1913, ill. no.1, facing p. 1,  p. 122

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 194, ill.

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 71, ill. p. 70

•DLA008-0005, letter from László Kézdi-Kovács to de László, 23 September 1911

•DLA162-0054, Pesti Hírlap, 3 October 1911, p. 40

•László, Lucy de, 1911 diary, private collection, 6 October, p. 140

•DLA162-0269, Pesti Hírlap, 16 May 1912, p. 7

•DLA068-0092, letter from Marczell László to de László, 3 January 1913

•DLA162-0198, Pesti Hírlap, 13 December 1911, p. 8

•DLA162-0388, Pesti Hírlap, 23 May 1912, p. 13

•DLA162-0383, Pesti Hírlap, 23 December 1924, p. 14

•DLA162-0096, Kézdi-Kovács, László, “Magyar művészképmások kiállítása” [Exhibition of Hungarian Artist Portraits], Pesti Hírlap, 6 May 1931, p. 6

•DLA162-0256, Pesti Hírlap, 15 October 1933, p. 6

•DLA162-0443, “László Fülöp ajándéka a Fővárosi Képtárnak” [Philip de László’s Gift to the City Gallery], Pesti Hírlap, 26 November 1936, p. 12

KF 2019