3390

Ferenc Sándor Korbay 1912

Head and shoulders in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing the clothes of a Magyar gentleman, with a jewelled and feathered brooch in his hat

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 69.9 cm (35 ½ x 27 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: Kedves barátom Ferinek  [To my dear friend Feri^[1]] London / 1912 Jul. P A de László^[2] 

Laib L6155 (782) / C14 (25A)  

NPG Album 1903-14, p. 70

NPG Album 1907-13, p. 48 where labeled by de László: Korbay Francz / my souvenir / 1912

Sitters’ Book I, f. 64:  Francis Korbay July 29th 1912

Private Collection

“Monsieur Korbay was one of László’s closest friends in England. His death in 1913 – a loss to musical society in London, and a lasting grief to the many friends he had in this country – moved László deeply. Born a son of one of the families of the lesser Magyar nobility, whose fortunes had been overshadowed by the troubles of the ’48,^[3] he devoted himself to music almost before he was out of his teens. A favourite pupil of Abbé Liszt, he became, in the judgement of many qualified critics, the finest exponent of his master’s works… László’s portrait of him, done quite shortly before his death, preserves the distinguished and attractive personality of the man, his charm of manner and innate distinction. A thorough citizen of the world in every sense of the word, there was a note of old-world chivalry and courtly gallantry, more especially towards women, that made him the type of old-world aristocrat to his fingertips, of the aristocracy of wit and intellect as well as birth. So attractive a personality could not, apart from personal friendship, fail to appeal to the artist in László, just as it did to Sargent, another close friend of his (Sargent had drawn and painted him around 1880).^[4] Like most Hungarians, intensely jealous of their common nationality, László decided to depict his friend in the picturesque garb of a Magyar gentleman, of which both were equally proud.”^[5] 

Ferenc Sándor Korbay was born in Budapest on 8 May 1846, the son of the civil servant Pál Korbay and his wife Sarolta, née Gyöngyösy. Both his parents were distinguished amateur musicians, his mother possessing a fine soprano voice. Inspired by the “singing reeds”^[6] that he had heard in his youth in the Hungarian countryside, by the age of nineteen Korbay had developed a robust tenor voice under the guidance of Gustave Roger, then the leading professor of singing in Paris, and from 1865 he was singing large operatic roles at the National Theatre of Budapest. The continued exertion, however, was too much for his voice, and, following his father’s early death in 1868, he decided on the advice of his godfather Liszt to make a career as a pianist, and to study composition under Mihály Mosonyi and Robert Volkmann. After touring in Europe as a pianist and a brief stay in London, he moved to New York in 1871, where he played and taught the piano until he found that his voice had recovered sufficiently to enable him to give song recitals, accompanying himself, and to teach singing. Among his most celebrated pupils were the American sopranos Lillian Henschel and Susan Strong.

On 28 June 1884 he married the pianist Ilona Ravasz (born 1851), herself a pupil of Liszt, who had been pursuing a successful career in New York. Together they founded a music school and appeared regularly on the concert platform over the following decade. In 1894, Korbay accepted the post of Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, although it is unclear whether his wife accompanied him when he left New York in April that year. She appears to have given up performing after this time.

In London, as in New York, Korbay championed the works of Liszt, especially his songs, and his own arrangements of Hungarian songs into English achieved great popularity. At the time de László was painting the present portrait, July 1912, Korbay was working on his last major orchestral composition, “A Hungarian Overture”. In a letter of 30 August 1912, Susan Strong, who had followed her teacher from New York to settle in England, wrote on behalf of Korbay, who was staying with her at the time, but suffering from a severe chill and debilitating attack of gout, that “the great portrait” was “an eternal joy and satisfaction”,^[7] while inviting de László to the first performance of the overture. This took place at a Promenade Concert in the Queen’s Hall in London conducted by Sir Henry Wood on 11 September 1912.

Korbay’s health continued to decline and he died in London on 9 March 1913. Although Korbay’s obituary in The Times^[8] makes no reference to her at all, his wife appears to have returned to Hungary after Korbay’s death. She died insane in Bratislava in 1922.^[9]

PROVENANCE:

Sold Sotheby’s, London, 22 March 1921, lot 101

EXHIBITED:        

•The Grosvenor Gallery, 2nd Annual Exhibition of the National Portrait Society, February-March 1913, no. 81

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 52

LITERATURE:        

•Williams, Oakley (ed.) Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 113-4, ill. facing p. 112

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, p. 117, ill.

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 128, ill. p. 134

•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. 45, ill. p. 44

•DLA011-0018, letter from Susan Strong to de László, 30 August 1912

CWS 2008