[1] According to Rutter, de László wanted to paint a picture “for my own pleasure, a subject in connection with the late war, and for that reason I intend to go on to Rome from Paris, where I shall stay until Easter away from my many social duties and portrait work here. The subject of the picture is not men fighting, but the still nobler part of suffering women at home; women of all classes in a chapel surrounding the burning candles for the fallen souls. I have been trying for the last ten years to do this picture, but have not had time, and I do not want to wait until I get much older” (Rutter, p. 372-3). It was de László’s custom to invite current sitters, their relatives or even ladies he met at parties to act as models for his War Picture studies. He made a number of preparatory pencil and oil sketches which remained in his studio upon his death, but he never found time to paint the large canvas that he had planned.