4509

Pope Leo XIII, né Vincent Joachim Pecci 1900

Seated three-quarter length in three-quarter profile to the left on a chair upholstered in red, a white zucchetto on his head, wearing a scarlet, gold-edged tabauro (cloak with shoulder cape) over a white simar (cassock with shoulder cape), a white watered silk fascia (sash) with its golden tassels on his lap, a jewelled pectoral cross on a gold cord, and a large ring with a blue stone on his right hand, his arms resting on the wooden arms of the chair, all against a grey background

Oil on canvas, 111.8 x 94 cm (44 x 37 in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F.E. / ROMA / 1900 III   

Magyar Nemzeti Galéria (Hungarian National Gallery), Budapest

1900 can be considered de László’s annus mirabilis. Having painted several members of the German Imperial Family, in early March he travelled to Rome to paint Pope Leo XIII.

Earlier that year Bishop Vilmos Fraknói [5120], the head of the Theological College for Hungarian students in Rome, having befriended de László in Budapest, had suggested to the Pope that an Hungarian artist should paint his portrait for the Hungarian National Gallery to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the baptism and coronation of St Stephen as first King of Hungary in 1000. As de László wrote in a letter to Boyer d’Agen for Cosmos Catholicus: “Leo XIII graciously consented, and I was the fortunate person to whom the great task was entrusted … He immediately announced that he would have his portrait painted with pleasure, in recognition of his strong sympathy for Hungary. And after a few days I began my work.”^[1]

Having made three exceptionally intuitive drawings [6029] [111294] & [10086], de László had to abandon his first attempt at a likeness in oil after three sittings as the Pope thought it made him look like Voltaire. De László wrote: “After three sittings […] I destroyed my work, unhappy with myself, having failed to capture this august face and the luminous soul which lit it up, as I saw it, as I felt it.”^[2] This rejected but partly finished head and shoulders portrait was in fact cut down and kept by the artist during his lifetime. After his death it was sent to the Vatican Museums, where it remains today [6027].

De László’s letter continues: “With gracious benevolence the Holy Father granted me four more sittings, and I think that with this second attempt I was able to reproduce that impression which I had felt in the first seconds [of our meeting]. During these sessions, in which His Excellency Bishop Fraknói was present throughout, His Holiness showed a lively interest in his portrait. Finally, he conversed with His Excellency Bishop Fraknói about a great variety of subjects; political, religious, social, artistic and scientific questions, and also about Hungary…I can say that I have never met a man whose innermost feelings were revealed so expressively, and who would be more deserving a model to be studied by an artist.”^[3] De László completed the portrait with the help of a friend and patron, Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger [4599], who, according to a descendant, sat for the painting of the robes and the final details of the Pope’s hands. The finished composition shows striking similarities to G. F. Watts’s 1882 portrait of Cardinal Manning, which the artist had given to the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1895 and which de László had probably seen during his visit to London in the autumn of 1898. Watts’s portrait itself owes much to Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X (Galeria Doria Pamphilij, Rome), which would appear to have also influenced de László in his portrait of the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla, painted at the same time as the present portrait [4511].

De László’s second portrait obviously pleased the Pope as he gave the artist his white zucchetto and a handkerchief. The Order of Pope Leo XIII was conferred upon him and he was presented with the Papal Gold Medal of Leo XIII, as an additional token of the sitter’s admiration. At the Paris International Exhibition in April 1900, de László was awarded the Grand Gold Medal for the portrait. It was this, amongst other paintings undertaken in Rome at that time, which “set the seal on his international reputation.”^[4] 

Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci was born in Carpineto, near Rome, on 2 March 1810, the sixth of seven sons of Count Lodovico Pecci and his wife Anna Prosperi Buzi. He was ordained priest in 1837, consecrated Archbishop of Perugia in 1846, ordained cardinal in 1853, and in 1878 succeeded Pope Pius IX as Leo XIII. The twenty-five year long papacy of this successful international diplomat has been described as “on the whole…one of the most brilliant”.^[5] Perhaps best known for his advanced thinking on contemporary questions of socialism and modern biblical study, he established the Pontifical Biblical Commission and also opened the Vatican archives to the world’s scholars. Despite his enlightened views he held firmly to his rights on questions affecting the Church and his own status. He wrote against Freemasonry and the validity of Anglican orders, and at the request of the Duke of Norfolk made John Henry Newman a cardinal. He died on 20 July 1903. He is buried, not in St. Peter’s, but in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, a church in which he had always taken a personal interest.

Original frame by Konrad Barth, 65 Luisenstrasze, Munich - Lamberger pattern no. 45

PROVENANCE:         

Presented by the artist to the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, 1900

EXHIBITED:           

•Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1900, no. 78, p. 437

•National Salon, Budapest, 1900, ill.

•Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Téli kiállítás [Winter Exhibition], 1900-1901, no. 313, ill.

•Société des Beaux-Arts, Le salon: huitième exposition, Brussels, 1901, no. 150, ill. p. 50

•Kunstsalon der Königlichen Hof-Kunsthandlung Emil Richter, Dresden, 1902

•Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Jahresausstellung, May–June 1902, no. 441

•Pulchri Studio, The Hague, 1903

•Glaspalast, Munich, Munich Annual Exhibition, 1903, no. 662, ill, p. 58

•Società degli Amatori, Rome, Exposizione della Società degli Amatori, 1904, no. 1066 B

•Wiesbadener Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Portrait Exhibition, 1904

•New Gallery, London, 4th Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, 1904, to be confirmed [see DLA140-0137]

•Kunstverein, Hamburg, 1905

•Fine Art Society, London, Philip A. László, Portrait Paintings and Drawings, May and June 1907, no. 28

•National Salon, Budapest, Exhibition of Works by László Fülöp, April 1907, no. 8

•Berlin, Grosse Berliner Kunst Ausstellung, 1910, no. 1491

•Rome, Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti, 1911, no. 116

•M. Knoedler & Co., Paris, 10–17 June 1922

•Venice, Biennale d'arte di Venezia, 1934, no. 483

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6–22 January 2004, no. 18

•The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Hungarian Splendour: Masterpieces from the National Gallery in Budapest, 23 September 2006–7 January 2007

•Royal Academy of Art, London, Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele, 25 September–12 December 2010, no. 181

•Budapest Történeti Múzeum [Budapest History Museum], Budapest, Festők a tükörben - magyar önarcképek az Uffizi Képtárból [Painters in the Mirror – Hungarian Self-portraits in the Collection of the Uffizi Gallery], 22 March– 20 July 2014

LITERATURE:  

•Gábor de Térey, ‘Feuilleton. The Spring Exhibition in the Künstlerhaus’, Pester Lloyd, 10 April 1900        

•The Studio, 15 September 1900, p. 1, ill.

•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat (Hungarian Fine Art Society), 1900/1. Évi Téli Kiállítás. Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 1900, ill.

•Tahi, Anthony, “A Hungarian Painter: Filip E. László,” The Studio, vol. XXIV (1901), ill. p. 7

•Vollmar, H., “Fülöp László,” Moderne Kunst, Vol. XVII, 1903, p. 252, ill.

•The Studio, vol. XXXI, 1904, ill. p. 69

•“Noted Hungarian Artist Takes London by Storm,” The Washington Post, Sunday, 23 June 1907, p. 5

•‘Je sais tout’, Pope Léo XIII, 15 July 1910, ill. p. 47

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, p. 43, pl. 47

•Williams, Oakley, ed., Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 33-6, ill. facing p. 32

•The Graphic, 24 January 1925, p. 122

•Ada Rainey, “Philip A. de Laszlo, Noted Painter. . . ,” The Washington Post, 27 December 1931, p. A5

•Bury, Adrian, “The Art of Philip de László: An Appreciation,” Apollo, July 1933, p. 19, ill.

•Pesti Hírlap, Budapest, 1933, pp. 12-4

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 184-93, 195-96, 198-204, 233. ill. facing p. 192

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P.A. de László, London 1969, p. 27, ill. pl. 16

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, pp. 80-1, ill. p. 81

•Vickers, Hugo, “So Many Portraits, So Many Friends,” Country Life, 1 January 2004, p. 55, ill.

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.), De László in Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, p. 17, ill.

•Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2010, p. 269, ill. p. 197

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 63-65, 68, 95, ill. 34

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 46

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 192

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 17, ill. p. 19

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, pp. 8, 22, ill. pp. 34, 36, 58, 84

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, pp. 9, 41, 54, 68, 120

•DLA162-0132, Pesti Hírlap, 9 February 1900, p. 6

•DLA162-0471, Pesti Hírlap, 28 March 1900, p. 9

•DLA162-0077, Pesti Hírlap, 5 June 1900, p. 2

•DLA140-0089, Vasárnapi Újság, vol. 37, issue 47, Budapest, 16 September 1900, ill.

•DLA140-0092, “Philipp László malt Papst Leo XIII.”, Neues Politisches Volksblatt, vol. XXIV, n˚87, Budapest, 29 March 1900, p. 5

•DLA140-0103, d’Agen, Boyer, “Philippe Laszló: Un portrait de S. S. Léon XIII”, Cosmos Catholicus: Grande revue catholique illustrée, Rome, 1st fortnight of January 1901, pp. 20-25, p. 21, ill.

•DLA140-0115, Dr Kovács, Jenő, “László Fülöp”, Új Idők, Vol. 7, issue 9, Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 24 February 1901, pp. 189-190

•DLA140-0105, Catalogue illustré des héliogravures, Londres, Paris, New-York, Dornach: Braun & Cie, 1901, p. 28, ill.

•DLA140-0108, Salon de Bruxelles, 1901, ill.

•DLA140-0110, Magyar Géniusz, vol. X, issue 1, Budapest, 1 January 1901, p. 10, ill.

•Laszlo, Lucy de, diary 1902-1911, 14 March 1902 entry, p. 24

•DLA140-0131, Vasárnapi Újság, vol. 50, issue 10, Budapest, 8 March 1903, front cover, ill.

•DLA029-0133, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 12 March 1903

•DLA140-0129, L’Illustrazione Italiana, 1903, ill.

•DLA140-0130, Velhagen & Klasing Monatshefte, September 1903, ill.

•DLA140-0137,  Art Journal, March 1904, p. 101, ill.

•DLA162-0476, Pesti Hírlap, 28 May 1905, p. 7

•DLA140-0155, Montesquiou-Fezansac, Robert (de), “Un portraitiste lyrique, Philipp Laszlô”, L’Art et les artistes, Revue d’art des deux mondes, issue 15, 15 June 1906, II, p. 94, ill.

•DLA140-0181, Arena, January 1907, ill.

•DLA140-0176, Dr. Erdey, Aladár, “László Fülöp festményeinek gyűjteményes kiállítása” [Exhibition of Paintings by Philip de László], Vasárnapi Újság, Issue 15, 14 April 1907, Budapest p. 295

•DLA140-0202, The American Review of Reviews, May 1908, p. 550

•DLA140-0237, Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung 1910, Berlin: F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1910, p. 8, ill.

•DLA162-0022, Pesti Hírlap, 1 May 1910, p. 8

•DLA140-0244, Colucci, Virginia, Un Maestro del Ritratto: Philip A. Làszló (sic), Siena: L. Lazzeri, 1910, p. 6

•DLA162-0034, Pesti Hírlap, 2 March 1912, p. 7

•DLA162-0108, Pesti Hírlap, 7 July 1927, p. 14

•DLA162-0033, Pesti Hírlap, 2 June 1931, p. 6

•László, Philip de, 1934 diary, private collection, 17 April entry, p. 4; 10 May entry, p. 21

With thanks to Sebastian Cody for the biographical details in this description

CWS 2008