10254

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

Half length, in profile to the right, head turned in three-quarter profile, wearing a pale yellow embroidered stole off her shoulders.

Oil on canvas, 83 x 57 cm (32 ½  x 22 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László   

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

Private Collection

This is de László’s first attempt at painting the portrait of the Infanta doña Beatriz but the King felt it made her look too old.^[1] A second, more formal version, full face, in the same attire, and wearing the order of Queen María Luisa [8008], was more widely exhibited, and was certainly favoured by the artist. It remains in the collection of the Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid. 

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [8008]

PROVENANCE:

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, the sitter’s mother,^[2] until her death in 1969;

The sitter

EXHIBITED:

•Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid, 12-16 May 1927^[3]

LITERATURE:          

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 369

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

•László, Lucy de, 1927 diary, private collection, 12 April entry, pp. 25-26

SMdeL 2011