111364

Frau Moritz Jacker 1904

Half-length slightly to the right, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a black silk blouse with a lace collar, a pearl brooch, matching earrings, and a pearl choker.

Oil on canvas, 101 x 70 cm (39 ¾ x 29 ⅝ in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: László F.E. / Vienna 1904 / X

Private Collection

The present portrait and the pendant of the sitter’s husband [111363] were commissioned by their son-in-law, Richard Kind (1861–1930) to hang in his villa in Aussig overlooking the river Elbe, now Ústí nad Labem in Czech Republic. Kind was a chemist and successful industrialist who owned three factories in Aussig. His company was the exclusive supplier of mineral oils for the Austrian railways.

Painted in Vienna in December 1904, both portraits were sent to Kind at the end of January 1905 and the artist received an enthusiastic letter soon after: “Even though the pictures are still not hanging on the final colour background their impact is quite extraordinary and we like them more and more each day. Especially the picture of Mama is very magical; we were doing you an injustice by finding the expression too mild and are developing a growing admiration for the finesses in it. The paintings talk back and that is the most one can ask for.”^[1]

De László began the Jacker portraits on board of smaller dimensions to the finished pictures [112391][112434]. These were set aside and the artist began again on canvas. The rejected portraits remained in the artist’s studio until his death, when they were destroyed in accordance with his will.  

Mathilde Grünwald was born on 6 October 1852 in Neu-Bydschow (now Nový Bydžov, Czech Republic), daughter of Philipp Grünwald (born 1808) and Maria Eisenschimmel (1812-1881). Mathilde married the hop merchant Moritz Jacker (1836-1912). Their daughter Hedwig was born in 1872 and later married Richard Kind (1861-1930) with whom she had three children, Franz, Kitty and Mimi. Hedwig died in Vienna in 1932. Having fled the Germans with her grandchildren, Mathilde died in 1942 at Barbezieux in France, aged 92.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•DLA070-0070, letter from Richard Kind to de László, 31 January 1905

•DLA070-0069, letter from Richard Kind to de László, 9 February 1905

CWS

2007

BS

2024