12398

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, née Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena of Battenberg; Consort of Alfonso XIII 1927

Half length slightly to the left, almost full face slightly towards the right, wearing a plain sleeveless black gown, a black lace mantilla, a black lace and chiffon stole over her shoulders and arms, the Order of Queen María Luisa on a purple and white ribbon pinned to her dress, and emerald drop earrings

Oil on canvas, 88 x 61.9 cm (34 ¾  x 24 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1927 madrid.                                   

Inscribed top right: S.M. LA REINA / DA. VICTORIA EUGÉNIA   

Sitters’ Book II, f. 53: Victoria Eugenia 

Museo del Prado, Madrid

This is the last of five portraits de László painted of Queen Victoria Eugenia. It was executed in Madrid in 1927, seventeen years after his first visit to the royal palace in 1910, when he painted the Queen for the first time [7933]. De László had then closely examined the works not only of his idol, Velasquez, but of Goya, who had also been a source of inspiration for his Spanish royal portraits. His discreet homage to Goya, such as in the portrait of the Queen Mother María Cristina [7922], was at the time essentially confined to the treatment of the background - with flatter, smoother brushstrokes, and in deep fawn, rather than dark brown – and to the greater solidity of his figures, the modelling of which stood out against such a uniform field.

This picture is a direct reference to Goya’s portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel by Goya.^[1] Whereas Doña Isabel was dressed as a ‘maja’, in a playful imitation of the exuberant style of some women of poor artisan communities in late 18th and early 19th century Madrid, it was later generally adopted as the formal attire for women. Thus, Queen Victoria Eugenia is wearing here a black dress, comb and mantilla, worn predominantly for official ceremonies and religious events. This formal style, in de László’s present portrait, particularly suited the Queen, especially at a time of political crisis. Like Goya, de László makes an effective use of the chiaroscuro to frame and highlight the luminescent features of his sitter.

The maja dress had already fuelled the artist’s imagination in London when in 1924 Mrs John Walter’s full Spanish costume and lace mantilla caught his eye at a fancy dress ball. He portrayed her in it in a similar composition to the present picture, but as a study-portrait against a pale background with her head almost in profile, and without any overt stylistic reference to Goya [6953].

Queen Victoria Eugenia was initially reluctant to be painted by de László in a mantilla, as she apparently disliked an earlier portrait of herself, wearing the Spanish headdress and holding a fan, painted in 1910 by Joaquín Sorolla. The present portrait was however very well received. Lucy de László noted in her diary 23 April 1927: “In the evg= The Queen visited the Studio & soon followed by the Prince of Wales & Prince George.^[2] The Prince was charming. Greatly admired the Queen’s picture, & of the King’s^[3] he said it’s so like it is uncanny.”^[4]

There exists a sketch in oil made by de László in preparation for the present portrait [111735] and a smaller unauthorised contemporary copy in watercolour painted by Nellie Harvey^[5] that bears the signature Laszló [sic]. Some contemporary photographic reproductions were also made.

The artist was quoted in the Excelsior magazine, describing this second visit to Madrid: “The Queen spent hours and hours in my studio and discussed art with the competence of an aesthete. Life in the Palace is infinitely pleasant and harmonious. I worked for five to six hours a day, and, before I left, at the request of the Royal Family, I organised an exhibition of the twenty-three paintings I made during the trip, an exhibition at the Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos. The Queen and Queen Mother came personally to open the private view.”^[6]

This portrait marked the end of an enduring artistic collaboration between de László and sitter. Having learnt of the royal family’s departure into exile upon the proclamation of the Second Republic on 14 April 1931 he reminisced about his long-lasting relationship with them: “I could not free my thoughts from todays historic events in Spain – all our friends could not feel it Then [ i.e. more than] myself – I who with Lucerl have been amongst them in 1910 […] and learnt their inner life – next in 1927- when we spent nearly two months  in Madrid - & painted the whole family – then I became again t[i]ed with the tragic atmosphere of the Royal family – Their gloomy family life. The sorrows of that fine Queen […] My – our great disappointment is the king – who sometime was cruel to her – so little chivalry who’s name in the world sounds sporting but was only a ‘sportsman’!”^[7] 

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [7933].

PROVENANCE:

Presented by the artist to the Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid;

Transferred to the Prado Museum on the opening of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 1992

EXHIBITED:

•Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid, 12-16 May 1927^[8] 
•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1927, no. 14

LITERATURE:         

•Illustrated London News, 11 June 1927, ill. frontispiece p. 1029

•Korda, Tibor, “A Painter of Kings, Diplomats and Statesmen: the souvenirs of Mr Philip A. de László who sojourned in Portugal and Spain for several weeks”, in Excelsior, 16 July 1927

•Illustrated London News, 30 July 1927, ill. p. 193

•Graham, Evelyn, The Queen of Spain, Hutchinson, London, 1930, front cover, ill. and frontispiece

•Woman’s Journal, vol. III, n˚18, April 1929, ill. p. 45 [7 instalments]

•Bavaria, H.R.H. Princess Pilar of, and Major Desmond Chapman-Huston, Don Alfonso XIII, A Study of Monarchy, John Murray, London, 1931, p. 350

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 369

•Guía-Catálogo del Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, 1975, p. 872

•Balansó, Juan, La Casa Real de España, Mirasierra, Madrid, 1976, ill.

•Los domingos de ABC supplement, 18 May 1986, p. 1118, ill.

•Los domingos de ABC supplement, 25 October 1987, ill.

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 157, fig. 77

•Rayón, Fernando and José Luis Sampedro, Las Joyas de las Reinas de España. Ed. Planeta, 2004, p. 251

•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, p. 23, ill.

•Dennison, Matthew,“Sitting Pretty?”, in Majesty magazine, September 2008, vol. 29, no. 9, p. 16, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 207

•László, Lucy de, 1927 diary, private collection, p. 26

•László, Philip (de), 1931 diary, private collection, p. 108

SMdeL 2014