8008

The Infanta doña Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg; daughter of Alfonso XIII 1927

Half-length, slightly to the right, her head turned and looking full face to the viewer, with her hands folded, left over right, wearing a white organza stole with a frilled edge over a yellow gown with a white border around the neckline. The Order of Queen María Luisa, on a purple and white ribbon, is pinned to her stole

Oil on canvas, 85 x 58.5 cm (33 ½ x 23 in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1927 Madrid   

Inscribed top right: S.A. LA INFANTA Da BEATRIZ  

Sitters’ Book II, f. 53:  Beatriz / 19th March 1927

Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid

This official portrait of the Infanta doña Beatriz was painted during de László’s second visit to Spain in 1927, when he also executed the portraits of all of her siblings. She was not even a year old when de László first painted her parents and elder brother in 1910, when she was proudly presented by the Queen to Lucy de László.

In a review of the French Gallery exhibition of forty of de László’s paintings in London, 1927, the Hungarian art critic Vilmos de Ruttkay wrote in the Pesti Hirlap newspaper: “In the portraits of the Infanta [doña] Beatriz and of Infanta [doña] María [Cristina], the blonde beauty and youthful grace of the King’s daughters are rendered in a simple, homely manner. Looking closely one can see the skilful use of broad and easy brushwork for the purpose of delineating character.” 

Another slightly less formal portrait of the Infanta doña Beatriz [10254] remains in a private collection.

Doña Beatriz was born on 22 June 1909 at La Granja de San Ildefonso, near Segovia, the eldest daughter of Alfonso XIII of Spain [7925] and Princess Victoria Eugénie of Battenberg, Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain [7933]. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria.

She and her younger sister, the Infanta doña María Cristina [10854], grew up closely under their mother’s influence. Later they both became qualified nurses of the Red Cross in Spain, of which Queen Victoria Eugenia was patron.

In 1931, doña Beatriz left Spain with her family, in the face of Republican demonstrations. They stayed initially in Paris, before moving to Fontainebleau. By 1933 she was living with her father, brother don Jaime [10852], and sister doña María Cristina in Rome. The exiled King Alfonso cautiously warned would-be suitors of the inherent dangers of haemophilia, which had so tragically affected two of his sons. As a result, doña Beatriz’s engagement in 1931 to the eldest son of the Infante don Alfonso de Orléans y Borbón was broken off. In 1934, the death of her youngest brother don Gonzalo [8014] was a severe blow to her. She was the driver of the car and he the passenger when they were involved in an accident in Carinthia, Austria. He died as a result of his haemophiliac condition, although his injuries were minor. In 1935, she married Alessandro Torlonia, Prince of Civitella Cesi. Their wedding took place in Rome in the presence of her father, the King and Queen of Italy and other royal guests. They had four healthy children, Sandra, Marco, Marino and Olimpia.

Doña Beatriz lived in Rome for the rest of her life, although after the restoration of the monarchy in 1975 she spent long periods in Spain, either in Madrid at the home of her brother, don Juan [12015] and, his wife, the Count and Countess of Barcelona, or in Santander, at the Palacio de la Magdalena, where she had spent many summer holidays as a child.^[1] She died aged ninety-three at her home, the Palazzo Torlonia in Rome in 2002, and was buried in the Torlonia family vault there.

PROVENANCE:

Property of Alfonso XIII, inv. no. 1305, hanging in the King's study in the Royal Palace

EXHIBITED:

•Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid, 12-16 May 1927^[2]

•The French Gallery, London,  A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1927, no. 15

LITERATURE:
•Ruttkay, Vilmos (de), review of the de László exhibition at the French Gallery in London, June 1927, in Pesti Hirlap, 24 June 1927

•The Daily Telegraph, obituary, 25 November 2002

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 207

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 166

With our grateful thanks to Excmo. Sr. Don Javier González de Vega y San Román for his assistance in preparing the biography for this entry.

SMdeL 2011