3113

RECTO

A Borzoi Dog: Study for the Full-length of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia 1910

Seen from behind, looking up to the right

Oil on board, 51.5 x 75 cm (20 ¼ x 29 ½ in.)

Studio Inventory, p. 31 (165.): as above

Private Collection

De László painted another study of a Borzoi dog on the verso of this preparatory work, and another similar study in oil also exists [3328]. The Borzoi dog was to be included in the composition of the large official equestrian portrait of German Emperor Wilhelm II, completed by de László in 1910 [4952], and full-length preparatory works [5044] & [11817] dated 1908, including a Borzoi dog, show that de László was already working on this subject then. It also appears, from the three sketches in oil of the dog, and the two existing pencil drawings of the dog and horse (one in the top right corner of study [3113], and the other on a photograph of the Emperor embossed 1908, reproduced in [3328]), that de László had more problems painting the Borzoi than the horse or the Emperor himself.

At the end of 1909, the artist was actively looking for a model for the dog, asking Lady Muriel Herbert whether he could make studies of hers.^[1] Whether de László eventually went to Wilton House to do so remains unclear, but it might be that the present study depicts her dog, see [3328]. This present study could also have been painted after photographs which were sent by the Kaiser to de László.^[2]

PROVENANCE:         

In the possession of the artist on his death

EXHIBITED:        

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, nº 41

LITERATURE:         

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 268-9

•MacDonogh, Katharine. Reigning Cats and Dogs, A History of Pets at Court since the Renaissance, London, 1999, ill. p. 275

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London 2004, p.106, ill.        

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 174, ill.

•DLA007-0053, letter from Lady Muriel Herbert to de László, 4 December 1909

•V&A National Art Library, letter from de László to Lady Muriel Herbert, Lockinge House, Wantage, Berks. 13 December 1909

•László, Lucy de, 1911 diary, 2 January entry, p. 1 (& subsequent)

CC 2008