7928

Study portrait

King Alfonso XIII of Spain 1910

Head and shoulders in three-quarter profile to the left, wearing the uniform of the King's Lancers no.1 Cavalry Regiment with Prussian-style helmet, a blue dolman^[1]over his left shoulder, and the insignia of the Golden Fleece.

Oil on board, 84.5 x 60 cm (33 ¼  x 23 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. László / madrid 1910. april

Sitters’ Book I, f. 87: Alfonso R.H. / 12. IV. 1910 [below note by the artist: Palais / Madrid & above his wife’s signature]

Private Collection

De László’s patronage by the Spanish royal family began in 1910, while he and Lucy were on holiday in the country. The present study is one of four portraits he made of the King of Spain [7925] [12400] [12438]. The King talked very freely to the artist. The artist’s wife records in her diary: “A few days ago when the King was sitting for his sketch, P. asked for another sitting, the King assented but said, “Wenn Sie ein Engländer wären, würde ich es nicht tun.”^[2]   He hates the English. The situation seems very strained between King and Queen. -  P. says the Queen-Mother [7922] rules still, only she has influence with her son, not Victoria [7933]. ^[3] 

This work is reminiscent of the portrait of another European leader whom de László had painted the previous year. Kaiser Wilhelm II [4955] was also shown to the left but full face, wearing the Prussian helmet. It reflects the personality of a king who felt passionate about military life, as well as the influence of the circle of Rembrandt’s Man in a gold helmet,^[4] of which de László owned a copy. His first variation on the theme, the portrait of Count Jean de Castellane [3765], was painted in 1899, but de László returned to the idea a number of times, treating it for the last time in 1937, the year he died, with the portrait of Kaiser Rana in his jeweled plumed helmet [7090].

For biographical notes on the sitter and for more information on de László’s patronage by the royal family in Madrid, see [7925]

EXHIBITED:

•Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Sexta Exposición Internacional de Arte, 1911, no. 710

LITERATURE:

•Schleinitz, Otto von, “Philipp A. von László,” Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, vol. XXVII, no. 1, September 1912, ill. p. 24                

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler-Monographien Vol.106: Ph. A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1913, ill. pl. 122, p. 109

•Museum: Revista Mensual de Arte Español Antiguo y Moderno y de la Vida Artística Contemporánea, 3rd year, no. 8, 1913,  p. 295, ill.

•Williams, Oakley (ed.), Selections from the Work of P.A. de László with foreword by comte Robert de Montesquiou, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 109-112, ill. facing p. 108

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 269-270

•Alcón, María Teresa Ruiz. ‘Habitaciones y Objetos Personales del Rey Don Alfonso XIII’, in Reales Sitios, no. 63, 1980, pp. 21-28, ill. front cover

•Semana magazine, 23 Sept 1987, pp. 60-61, ill.

•Villalonga, José Luis (de), Le Roi, Fixot, Paris 1993, p. 55, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 133

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 169, ill.

•László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, private collection, p. 167

SMdeL 2012