9059

Doctor Sámuel Egerer 1901

Seated three-quarter length to the left, wearing a dark suit and frock coat, his hands resting on his lap

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: László F E  / 1897: 1901   

Private Collection

Doctor Sámuel Egerer was a surgeon, which perhaps explains why his hands are prominently depicted in this rather sombre portrait. His son, Gedeon Egerer, signed the Sitters’ Book in 1899 and may have been an art dealer or collector as he owned a number of de László’s paintings. Six of these were exhibited alongside the present picture at the Nemzeti Szalon Exhibition of 1907 in Budapest. One of these was a portrait of the sitter’s daughter Vilma Egerer, later Mme. Sándor Benedek [7449], dated 14 May 1897 and inscribed with an affectionate dedication.

Sámuel Egerer was born in Tachov, Bohemia c. 1816. He married Johanna ‘Janka’ Hirsch (1836-1877). The couple had six children; one of their sons, Imre, died aged 23 in June 1879. The remaining children were Otto, Gedeon, Gizella, Irén and Vilma. Otto became a British subject in 1902^[1] and remained in touch with de László during the First World War.^[2] 

The sitter died in Budapest on 23 November 1901. An obituary of the sitter that appeared in Pester Lloyd in 1901 describes him as a “surgeon and military doctor...The old gentleman, who moved and was known in wide circles, maintained to the end of his life full mental vigour and agility.”^[3] 

PROVENANCE:

Offered for sale at Bonham’s, New York, 20 November 2019, lot 87

EXHIBITED:
•Nemzeti Szalon, Budapest, Exhibition of Works by László Fülöp, April 1907,  no. 24

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society Spring Exhibition and Retrospectives of Philip de László, Mihály Munkácsy, János Pentelei Molnár, Samu Petz and László Hűvös, 4 May-30 June 1925 [Műcsarnok, Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat, Budapest, Tavaszi kiállítás és László Fülöp, Munkácsy Mihály, Pentelei Molnár János, valamit Petz Samu és Hűvös László összegyűjtött műveinek kiállítása, 1925. május 4-június 30.], no. 28

LITERATURE:
•Pester Lloyd, 24 November 1901, p. 7

•DLA004-0018, letter from Otto Egerer to de László, 4 June 1915
•DLA004-0016, letter from Otto Egerer to de László, 5 January 1916
•DLA039-0050, letter from Géza Paur to de László, 26 March 1925

Pd’O 2017