5619

Monsignor Count Péter Vay^[1] 1904

Head and shoulders in profile to the left, wearing a biretta

Graphite on paper, 35 x 25.4 cm (14 x 10 in.)

Inscribed lower left: Monsigneur / Count Vay de Vaja

Inscribed verso: Count Vay de Vaja of Luskod [in the hand of John de Laszlo, the artist’s youngest son]

Sitters’ Book I, f. 33: Mgr de Vay [among other signatures dated 1900]

Sitters' Book I, f. 67: Vay de Vaya [and in the artist's hand: 1904 / Vienna]

Studio Inventory, p. 159 (278): Study of Monsignor Count Vay de Vaja

Private Collection

De László painted the sitter on three further occasions, the first painted in 1904 in Vienna, which was presented to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin by the artist [5617]. It is probable that the present drawing was made in preparation for that portrait. The two others both remain in the Collection of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace, Florence; one painted in 1906 [5624], and the other, a smaller study portrait, painted in 1935 [5626].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5617]

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 188, 224

Pd’O  2014