5291

Study portrait

Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg 1899

Head and shoulders to the left, wearing the uniform of the Garde du Corps, a cloak over full dress uniform with cuirass and helmet with an eagle crest

Oil on board, 101 x 75 cm (39 ¾ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower middle right: in Verehrung [with esteem] / László F. E. / [...] 1899 / Juli 28 

Sitters’ Book I, f. 3: Max Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg März 99

Sitters’ Book I, f. 6: In Abwesenheit des Meisters 14 / 4 99 besuchten folgende hohe Gäste die Stätte stiller Arbeit das Heiligtum der Kunst und besahen die Werke welche “sehr gut in der Farbe sind.”^[1] Max Egon

Sitters’ Book I, f. 28: Max Egon Fst zu Fürstenberg / 24 / 7 99

Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Sammlungen, Schloss Donaueschingen, Germany

Inventory no. 789

De László visited the Fürstenberg estate Schloss Donaueschingen in Germany in July of 1899 to complete the pendant three-quarter length portraits of Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg [3600] and his wife Irma Fürstin zu Fürstenberg, née Countess Schönborn Buchheim [5297] that he had begun in March in Vienna. During his stay the artist also painted the present portrait of the sitter in the uniform of the Garde du Corps and a portrait of his wife in Van Dyck dress [112072], which may be a pendant to this picture.

The Prussian “Regiment der Gardes du Corps” was founded in 1740 as a personal bodyguard of the King of Prussia and from 1871 of the German Emperor. They wore a white cuirassier uniform with a red tunic and a white metal eagle on a bronze helmet for officers, as can be seen in the present portrait. De László made a preparatory study for this portrait [8925] which remained in his possession until his death in 1937.

For biographical notes on the sitter see [3360].

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the sitter’s family

EXHIBITED:

•Conversationshaus, Baden Baden, Collectiv Portrait Ausstellung, August-September 1899, no. 5

•Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 1899^[2]

•Prinzenbau und Landeshaus, Sigmaringen, Adel im Wandel, Sigmaringen, 13 May to 29 October 2006, no. IX.8

LITERATURE:    

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1913, pp. 52-56

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939 pp. 175, 183

•Hull, Isabel, The entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1982, Cambridge University Press, p. 148, ill. 4

•Schweers, Hans F., Gemälde in deutschen Museen: Katalog der ausgestellten und depotgelagerten Werke, Saur, Munich, 1994, p. 1047

•Hengerer, Mark (ed.), Adel im Wandel, Oberschwaben von der frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart, 2 vols., Thorbecke, Ostfildern, 2006, p. 250, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László. His Life and Art, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010, p. 58

•NSzL150-0084 German press cutting, August 1899

•DLA090-0131, German press cutting, 15 August 1899

•DLA090-0193, “Kunstausstellung im Conversationshaus”, German press cutting, [undated, presumably 1899]  

ATG 2018