110655

History picture

Preparatory work

L’Incroyable, also known as 1793 1892

Seated full-length on a plain wooden chair leaning against a table and facing left, wearing a redingote with wide collar, a large white cravat, pale breeches and calf-length boots, his right hand holding his left leg, the his arm resting on the table

Charcoal heightened with white on cardboard, 54 x 37 cm (21 ¼ x 14 ½ in.)

Inscribed, lower left: Bélámnak [To my Béla] / München 1893 …? / László FE

Studio Inventory, p. 146 (45): Study of a Man in Costume (signed) / Drawn in Munich.

Private Collection

Of the three worked-up preparatory drawings that are recorded for L’Incroyable [111787], this is likely to be the earliest one. The misleading inscription probably records the date when de László offered this sketch to its dedicatee, and it is possible that it is the one the artist gave to his model, see [111787].

In the present charcoal drawing, the contortion of the sitter’s torso in relation to his legs appears contrived, and his right knee too low, which makes his figure awkward. The study also shows that at this stage, de László had not yet captured the angry and passionate expression that characterises the sitter in his oil painting, an expression which, de László recalled, was the result of a heated conversation about love. Here, the sitter looks faintly timorous, and the bottle and glass of absinthe are not yet included in the composition, as in the following drawing [111356], and what appears to be the last preparatory sketch for the painting [11256].

For a discussion of the subject of this picture, see [111787].

PROVENANCE:                

Sold at BÁV auction house, 1980;

Bequeathed to the present owner, 1984

EXHIBITED:                

•MOM Árpád Szakasits Cultural Centre, Budapest

LITERATURE:                

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1939, pp. 79-81

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 24

CC 2008