6367

Study portrait

Mrs William Max-Müller, née Wanda Maria Heiberg 1915

Half-length and looking to the left, with her left hand raised to her breast holding a lily and a stole around her shoulders just indicated

Oil on board, 89.5 x 67.5 cm (35 ¼ x 26 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: P. A. de László / 1915. XI. 30.

Laib L7859(58) / C18(34A)  Mrs. M. Muller

NPG Album 1913-15, p. 67

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 104: Wanda Max Müller 1915 / June 1st [her name later crossed out by Lucy de László, who noted above it: Manifestation of Perfidy]

Private Collection

According to Mrs Max-Müller, she first met de László in London shortly before her husband’s appointment as British Consul-General in Budapest in 1913.^[1] She wrote: “I first went to Mr De László to have my picture painted about September 1915^[2], but the first attempt was a failure. He then wrote to me asking to postpone the sittings for a month or so, as he had several officers to paint who were going to the war. In October 1915 he started on a second canvas as he was not satisfied with what he had already done, but after one sitting which also failed to please him, he began a third picture. … The first sitting for the third canvas [the present work - on board, not canvas] took place before the end of October ...”^[3] The portrait was signed on 30 November and two days later Lucy de László recorded in her diary “Mrs Max Muller’s picture was finished this week – quite lovely – Her transparent skin, & limpid expression, the colour of the flowers & violet tones make a glorious ensemble.”^[4] Both rejected versions remain untraced, possibly destroyed, although one, probably the second, was recorded in de László’s studio at the time of his death [112115].

Wanda Maria Heiberg was born in Christiania (now Oslo) on 25 March 1883, the daughter of Jacob Munch Heiberg (1843-1888), Professor of Medicine at the University of Christiania, and his Danish-born wife, Nicoline Bay Syberg (b.1856). On 21 April 1908 she married in Christiania the Head of Chancery at the British Legation there, Wilhelm Grenfell Max-Müller (1867-1945), the only son of the eminent German-born Orientalist and philologist Friedrich Max-Müller (1823-1900) and his English wife Georgina Adelaide Grenfell (1835-1916). His grandfather, Wilhelm Müller, was the poet of Die Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin, set to music by Schubert. 

The following year the couple moved to Peking, where Max-Müller was Counsellor at the British Embassy until 1912, after which they returned to London. In 1913 he was appointed Consul-General in Budapest, remaining there until the outbreak of war.

As the war progressed growing xenophobia in Britain led to widespread suspicion of anyone bearing a foreign-sounding name. Wanda, née Heiberg, and her ambitious husband, himself the son of a German-born father, had good reason to strive to prove their patriotism and this was to have serious consequences for de László, whose own activities were under surveillance. In June 1917 he began work on his full-length portrait of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst [111008], then Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, for whom William Max-Muller (as he now styled himself) was at that time compiling extensive monthly reports on the economic situation in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Twice in August de László, despite being a naturalised British Subject, was questioned by Basil Thomson of Special Branch concerning his allegiance, during which month Thomson was collecting statements from some of the artist’s recent sitters to discover evidence of anti-British activity. Among these was Wanda Max-Muller, who, in her statement, cast grave doubts on de László’s integrity, ending by declaring she believed “he was to all intents and purposes an enemy alien, and I did not regard him as a loyal British Subject.”^[5] In September de László was arrested and interned for the duration of the war under the Defence of the Realm Act.

In 1919 de László’s naturalisation was considered for revocation under the Nationality and Status of Aliens Act. During the hearings Wanda Max-Muller declined to give evidence, but, according to The Times of 24 June 1919, “a conversation with a sitter Mr [sic] Max Müller^[6] in the autumn of 1915” was a matter to be considered by the Revocation Committee. Whether this was actually discussed at the hearings was not reported subsequently, but it suggests that Wanda had betrayed de László’s confidence by repeating a conversation to her husband, in addition to her statement to Thomson. On 28 June the Committee declared de László not guilty of any conduct that would justify the revocation of his certificate of naturalisation.^[7] Nevertheless, to record her anger at the woman’s treachery, Lucy de László scratched out Wanda Max-Muller’s signature entered in her husband’s Sitters’ Book in June 1915 and scrawled “Manifestation of Perfidy” above it, although the abandoned version of her portrait remained in de László’s studio until his death. The wound inflicted by Wanda Max-Muller’s “perfidy” never healed: in 1933 at a sherry party in London de László encountered “those miserable couple – Max Müller & his Swedish [sic] pushing cold blooded wife – who conspired against me during the war – to serf their own purposes – I showed them the cold shoulder – & pleased to see them out & out”, as he recorded in his diary in his inimitable English.^[8]

After working in the Foreign Office throughout the war, in 1920 William Max-Muller was appointed British Minister to the newly established Polish Republic. He was knighted in 1922. The Max-Mullers remained in Warsaw for seven years during which time they became well-known and popular figures, Lady Max-Muller’s Salon becoming a centre of Warsaw society where artists and writers could meet with the Diplomatic Corps. Sir William retired in 1928 and died on 12 May 1945. Lady Max-Muller died on 6 June 1970. She was survived by their two sons, Charles (born 1909), who had recently retired as Head of Outside Broadcasting at the BBC, and John (born 1912).

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family of the sitter

CWS 2021