12438

Study portrait

King Alfonso XIII of Spain 1927

Head and shoulders in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing a brown jacket, white shirt and blue tie, against a brown background

Oil on canvas board, 63 x 46 cm (24 ¾ x 18 in.)

Signed and dated lower left: de László / 1927. v.  

Verso inscribed and dated: Painted this study / of the King / during one hours (sic) /MAY .. .2. 1927 / Palace Madrid [in paint]

Sitters’ Book II, f. 53: Alfonso XIII. / II. Apr. 1927.

Museo del Prado, Madrid

The present portrait is one of the four recorded portraits of the King of Spain by de László, whose patronage by the Spanish royal family began in 1910. Two, [7925] and [7928], were painted during his first visit and [12400] and [12438] during his second in 1927. The latter coincided with the 25th anniversary of Alfonso XIII’s accession to the Spanish throne.

The artist’s wife noted in her diary on 4 May 1927: “This mg: P. saw both the King & Queen.[…] When the King saw the Professors^[1] sketch, he sd he liked this the best, & asked P. to paint his profile like that tomorrow!”^[2] The painting on 5 May, remarkably finished in one hour, while the artist was already painting a formal three-quarter length portrait of the King [12400], was well received. Writing, later, on Friday 20 May about the preview of the exhibition of de László portraits on the 25th anniversary of his succession, which the King and Queen attended, Lucy asserts: “I heard the King say to Rumbold^[3] that he liked the Profile [12438] best of his pictures.”^[4]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [7925].

PROVENANCE:

Presented by the artist to the Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid;

Transferred to the Prado Museum on the opening of the new Contemporary Art Gallery, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 1992

EXHIBITED:

•Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid, 12-16 May 1927. [This exhibition was arranged as one of the events celebrating the 25th anniversary of King Alfonso XIII’s accession to the throne]

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1927, no.  25

LITERATURE:  

•The Sketch, 20 July 1927, p. 111, ill.

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

•Guía-Catálogo del Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, 1975, p. 634

•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, p. 144

•László, Lucy de, 1927 diary, private collection, p. 152

SMdeL 2014