110543

María Florentina Moreno de Álzaga, née María Florentina Moreno Vivot 1928

Seated three-quarter length to the left, head turned and looking to the right, wearing a pale satin dress, a stole on her lap, and two rows of pearls round her neck, a green and gold curtain to the left

Oil on canvas, 129 x 97 cm (50 ¾ x 38 in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: de László / 1928 Paris

Sitters’ Book II, f. 60: María Florentina Moreno de Alzaga / Paris Octubre 9 – 1928.

María Florentina Moreno de Álzaga and her husband, like many wealthy Argentines in the 1920s, would spend their winter season enjoying the European summer, spending it in London, Paris, and taking health-cures in Switzerland. De László had a high reputation in Argentine society and he was much sought after for portrait commissions during these yearly visits. The sitter’s husband, Emilio Dionisio Álzaga Piñeyro, was the uncle of Félix Saturnino Álzaga Unzué, whose wife, Elena Peña de Álzaga Unzué, had been painted by de László in 1924 [110542]. In 1921 the artist had painted five members of the Santamarina family,^[1] as well as María Mercedes de Alvear [3434].

De László had hoped to paint María Florentina Moreno de Álzaga in July 1928, but  was delayed due to a backlog of work caused “through my being called away, unexpectedly, to Torino, a month ago…”^[2] In September María Florentina Moreno de Álzaga was writing to the artist from the Schweizerhof Hotel, Lucerne, regarding her dress for the future portrait: “Would it be too much to ask you to send me a very small sketch with the hues you think would be best? […] Then the dress would be ready on your arrival to Paris.”^[3] The portrait was completed there in October 1928.

The sitter’s children took it in turns to watch de László at work on the picture and they recalled that at first he portrayed her holding a rose in her hand, but painted over it as he did not like the effect. He did, however, leave her left arm in the same gracefully extended position. As was the artist’s custom, he chose the antique frame and brought it with him from London.

María Florentina Moreno Vivot was born in 1880 in Buenos Aires, the eldest of the seven children of Josué Nemesio Moreno Thwaites (1853-1915) and María del Socorro Vivot Sáenz Valiente (1856-1952). Her school years were spent at the Santa Unión convent in Buenos Aires.^[4]

María Florentina and her sister, “Lita” (Isabel), were both greatly admired for their beauty. Contemporary writers and composers celebrated them in verse and song, including this excerpt by an unknown hand:

Niña de los muchos novios

Con ninguno te casas

Si te guardas para un rey

Cuatro tiene la baraja.^[5] 

On 3 December 1908, in Buenos Aires, María Florentina Moreno Vivot married Emilio Dionisio Álzaga Piñeyro (1877-1963), the youngest son of Félix Gabino de Álzaga Pérez (1815-1887) and Celina Piñeyro García (1831-1911). At twenty-six years of age she was considered relatively mature for the conventions of the time. They had six children: Emilio Félix (born 1910), María Florentina (born 1911), Fernando Pedro (born 1912), Alberto Josué (born 1916), Federico Hernán (born 1919) and Marcelo Rómulo (born 1922).

The sitter is remembered as a very reserved personality. She loved gardens and flowers and especially enjoyed the family estancia, Pancho Díaz^[6] in the Province of Buenos Aires. She often stayed there from December until March, in the company of her entire family, which eventually included twenty-nine grandchildren. Winters were spent travelling to Paris, London and the spa-town of Baden-Baden with her children

She died in Buenos Aires in 1967.

LITERATURE:

•Dodero, Alberto, and Philippe Cros, 1889-1939: Argentina, The Golden Years, El Ateneo, 2007, ill. p. 90

•Newspaper Cuttings, Scrapbook I, private collection, p. 59

•DLA051-0106, letter from the artist to Emilio de Álzaga, 2 July 1928

•DLA051-0101, letter from María Florentina Moreno de Álzaga to the artist, 11 September 1928

SMdeL 2012