6234

Madame Hugo Loudon-van Marken, née Anna Petronella Alida van Marken  1908

Seated three-quarter length to the right, in three-quarter profile, wearing a full white evening dress with a stole draped over her arm and holding a fan on her lap

Oil on canvas, 113 x 84 cm (44 ½ x 33 in.)

Inscribed lower left: P A László / 1908 II

Sitters’ Book I, f. 79: Anna Loudon [directly above her husband's signature which is dated January 1908]

Private Collection

De László also painted the sitter’s husband, Jonkheer Hugo Loudon in 1909 [6227], his brother Ambassador John Loudon in 1920 [6241], and the sitter's son, John Hugo aged fifteen also in 1920 [6246], in which year he made a portrait study on board of Madame Loudon [6237]. He also painted her mother-in-law, Madame James Loudon, née Louise Wilhelmine Françoise Félicité de Stuers, in 1909 [6238].

Anna Petronella Alida van Marken was born in Hummelo, near Arnhem, on 23 June 1874. She was the daughter of the Reverend Willem van Marken (1839-1918) and Jonkvrouwe Henriette Carolina Wilhelmina van Riemsdijk. She was the sister of Wilhelmina Cremer [4205]. Her mother was the elder sister of Theodorus [10774] and Barthold van Riemsdijk [111222]. Anna married Jonkheer Hugo Loudon on 26 March 1903, with whom she had three sons, James Willem (born 1904), John Hugo (born 1905) and Hugo Alexander, who was born seven months after this portrait was made. Anna Loudon died on 12 February 1953.

The cosmopolitan Loudon family lived at Voorlinden, the family home in Wassenaar, near The Hague, where they were neighbours of the Van Tuylls [7531], and they were familiar with de László’s work throughout Europe. De László began a portrait of Anna, probably in January 1908 when Hugo and Anna signed his sitters’ book, but he was unhappy with his original attempt and scored the surface before making a new portrait in February, at the same time that he was painting Anna’s sister-in-law Adriana van Riemsdijk-Loudon [110706]. The first version is nevertheless signed. A member of the Loudon family rescued the first painting and had it restored [6233].

At the Dowdeswell exhibition in London in 1908 de László also showed his second version of Anna’s portrait as well as the Janssen children [110462] and the now-lost portrait of Henriette van Tuyll [7544].

EXHIBITED:

•Dowdeswell Galleries, London, An Exhibition of Portraits by Philip A. László, 1908, n° 19

LITERATURE:          

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.). De László in Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, pp. 8, 10, 48-50, 52, 54, 67, ill. n° 15

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 114, ill. pp. 113, 116

CWS 2008