4233

Count Lajos Széchenyi 1908

Half-length, slightly to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a dark brown díszmagyar, the ceremonial dress of a Hungarian nobleman, and hat with a feather and badge at the front, all against a dark brown background

Oil on board, 93.4 x 64.8 cm (36 ¾ x 25 ½ in.)

Inscribed top left: LÁSZLÓ F.E. 1908 

NPG 1903-1914 Album, p. 74

NPG 1912-1916 Album, p. 4, where labeled Count Louis Széchenyi / Graf Széchenyi Lajos / 1912.

Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (Hungarian National Museum), Történelmi Képcsarnok (Historical Gallery)

In 1907, after his highly successful exhibition at the Fine Art Society in Bond Street, de László decided to settle permanently in London.^[1] Count Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein [4694], Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s opened the exhibition and “seized every occasion to show the high regard in which he held his gifted Hungarian compatriot.”^[2] It is most likely that the artist was introduced to Count Lajos Széchenyi, a Hungarian diplomat working at the Embassy, by Count Mensdorff. De László had by this time already painted three members of the very large Széchényi family, though none of them was closely related to the present sitter.^[3]

De László rejected his first portrait [112119] of the sitter and the present portrait was begun in May and completed by 16 June 1908.^[4] He originally planned to exhibit it at the 1908 Paris Salon or at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, but instead it was first shown at the Dowdeswell Gallery in London in June 1908.^[5] The critics were enthusiastic. The Observer reported: “As a colourist he is at his best in his portrait of Count Louis Széchenyi in his sumptuous Hungarian magnate’s attire, which Mr. László has made the bases for an altogether pleasing and successful harmony in browns.”^[6] An American reviewer described the portrait as “a masterpiece of brushwork, color and character reading.”^[7] Later in 1908 the portrait was shown at the Schulte Gallery in Berlin, where de Lászlό also exhibited portraits of the German Imperial Family. The exhibition was visited by the Kaiser and his wife, and their 16-year-old daughter Princess Victoria Luise of Prussia, whom de László painted as a child in 1899 [5090]. She had developed a great affection for the artist and was painted again in 1908 [5092]. The Kaiser liked Count Széchenyi’s portrait and admired the sitter’s dίszmagyar. The young Princess asked the artist whether he too had a national costume like this and whether he had brought it with him to Berlin. On receiving an affirmative reply, the Princess remarked: “What a pity that the Court Ball was cancelled because the Court is in mourning. I would have very much liked to have seen you in this Hungarian costume of your fatherland.”^[8] 

Count Lajos Széchenyi de Sárvár-felsővidék was born in Gyönk, Tolna county, on 28 March 1868, the second son of Count Sándor Széchenyi (1837-1913) and his wife, Natália Dőry de Jobaház (1846-1928), Lady in Waiting to the Imperial and Royal Court. In 1892 he entered the Austro-Hungarian Diplomatic Service and served successively in Brussels, Washington, Rome and St.Petersburg. He was transferred to London in 1903, and left in 1909 to take charge of the Diplomatic Agency and Consulate in Cairo, with the rank of Minister. On the outbreak of the First World War, the Agency was dissolved, and he entered military service, serving in Belgrade. In November 1916 he was appointed Austro-Hungarian Minister to Sofia, but in January the following year he was transferred to become Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg until the end of the War in November 1918.

Freiherr Ludwig von Flotow, the last Head of the Austro-Hungarian Diplomatic Service, wrote about the sitter: “His beautifully chiseled face has been captured by László’s masterly hand in one of his best portraits. He was a difficult character and at first there were some clashes between us. But his loyal, noble nature always gave him the upper hand. In the end we formed a sincere friendship…when I was promoted First Head of Department, he was given the function of Second Head of Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Pedantically correct, inexhaustibly diligent and with an exemplary sense of duty, he compelled himself to the task with hard determination, even when his health was impaired. The collapse of the Monarchy destroyed his zest for life. Once he had been taken ill, he put up no resistance. He longed for death.”^[9] He went for treatment at the Hydrotherapy Institute in Kaltenleutgeben, near Vienna, where he died on 28 March 1919. He never married.

PROVENANCE:

Countess Zsigmond Széchényi;^[10]

Bought by the Hungarian National Museum in 1980

EXHIBITED:

•The Dowdeswell Galleries, London, An Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, June and July, 1908, no. 32

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, 1908

•Rome, Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti Roma: Ungheria, 1911, no. 122

LITERATURE:
•The Observer, 28 June 1908, Art Notes
•Pester Lloyd, 4 March 1909, pp. 2-3
•Williams, Oakley, ed., Selections from the Work of P. A. de László. Hutchinson, London, 1921, p. 121
•Flotow, Ludwig, Freiherr von, November 1918 auf dem Ballhausplatz. Erinnerungen des letzten Chef des Ӧsterreich-Ungarischen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1895-1920 (November 1918 at the Ballhausplatz. Memoirs of the last Head of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Service 1895-1920),  ed. Erwin Matsch, Böhlau, Vienna 1982, pp. 14-15
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, pp. 265-266
•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.103

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 132, ill. p. 139

•László, Lucy de, 1908 diary, private collection, 19 May and 16 June entries
•DLA090-0134, Review of the Dowdeswell Gallery exhibition, 1908, source unknown
•DLA036-0042, letter from Count Lajos Széchenyi to de László, 30 June 1908
•DLA036-0035, letter from Count Lajos Széchenyi to de Lászlό, 14 August 1908
•DLA140-0220, Moderne Kunst, probably 1908, ill. as Ungarischer Edelmann ( Hungarian nobleman)

•DLA162-0343, Pesti Hírlap, 21 December 1912, p. 8

Pd’O 2017