DLA095-0075  Transcription

‘Many Prominent Americans Among Those to View Latest Work of Hungarian Painter at the French Gallery in London. From The World’s Bureau’, New York World

[Caption] Portraits and Studies of Noted Women In British Society Exhibited by de Laszlo

[Illustrations]

[Caption] Portraits by Philip A. de Laszlo, M.V.O., Exhibited at the French Gallery

Lady ANASTASIA WERNHER [1954]

Lady DAVSON, O.B.E. [4643]

Mrs. R. E. WARDE. [10077]

Lady APSLEY [3534]

LONDON, Aug. 1.—An artist of immense fashionable prestige, Philip A. de Laszlo is one of the most successful of modern portrait painters. He has counted many beautiful women and distinguished men among his sitters not only in London and the Continental capitals, but in America, which he has twice visited; there he made portraits of Theodore Roosevelt [5201][5205]and John W. Davis, formerly Ambassador to England, now a candidate for the Presidency of his country [4636][4638].

Fifty Portraits Exhibited.

De Laszlo’s latest exhibition at the French Gallery, Pall Mall, opened recently and contains fifty portraits and studies which well illustrate the brilliance and dexterity of his work. Among the many visitors to view the Hungarian painter’s work have been a number of prominent Americans.

Of the fashionable and aristocratic women there depicted, one is Mrs. R. E. Ward [10077], who—if one may speak of time and a woman in the same breath—has figured long as one of the reigning beauties of England and as the most gifted amateur actress of London’s smartest set. She was Miss Muriel Wilson, daughter of the late Arthur Wilson of Tranby Croft, Yorkshire. She is tall and dark, with rich and warm coloring and has luxuriant wavy hair and a splendid figure. Time and again it had been reported she would wed this or that British Duke, or a foreign Prince or ambassador who sought her hand; she married R. E. Warde, a young officer of the Scots Guards, in 1917.

Portrait of Lady Apsley.

A lovely portrait of Lady Apsley [3534] adorns the exhibition. She was Miss Violet Meeking, a great heiress; last winter she married Lord Apsley, eldest son and heir of the Earl and Countess Bathurst. Lord Apsley, D. S. O., M. C., M. P., has been a frequent visitor to the United States and is well known in New York and Washington. He is Conservative Member of Parliament for Southampton; he won both the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross, as well as the French Legion of Honor by gallantry at the front in France and, afterward, under Field Marshal Lord Allenby in Egypt and in the conquest of Palestine. Lady Apsley is a sister of Lady Somers, the wife and daughter of soldiers who have served their country well.

Lady Anastasia Wernher and her husband, Major Harold Wernher, who is immensely wealthy, visited New York some three years ago. She is by birth a Countess Torby; her friends call her Lady “Zia.” She is the daughter of Grand Duke Michael Michaelovitch of Russia and the Countess de Torby. Lady Zia has a younger sister, Lady Nadejda. Lady “Nada,” who is the wife of the Marquis of Milford Haven, closely related to the royal family, the title of Battenberg being discarded after the great war broke out. Major Wernher inherited an enormous fortune acquired by his father, Sir Julius Wernher, in South Africa.

Painted Many Americans.

Lady Davson is the wife of Sir Edward Davson and the elder daughter of Elinor Glyn, author of “Three Weeks” and other books that everybody has read. The Davsons were married in 1921; the next year a son, Geoffrey, came to bless them. Lady Davson’s sister, Juliet, married Lieut. Col. Sir Rhys Williams of the Welsh Guards, whom she nursed back to health after he was wounded in the war.

Philip de Laszlo’s portraits are extremely attractive. They are strong and at the same time delicate; they are full of vivacity without exaggerated action; they are pleasing in composition and the coloring is soft and rich. As has been said, his clientele is by no means exclusively feminine. In America he painted such rich and fashionable women as Countess Szechenyi, who was Miss Gladys Vanderbilt [4238]; Princess Miguel de Braganza, formerly Miss Anita Rhinelander Stewart [4817]; Mrs. Marshall Field [110450] and Mrs. Francis P. Garvan and her children [5312]. But he painted, too, Secretary of State Hughes [5698], Gen. Pershing [6887] and Col. Edward M. House [5693].

MD

12/11/2007