111099

Madame Elek Lippich de Korongh, née Margit Sziklay 1894

Seated three-quarter length turned slightly to the left, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a black dress with lace collar and holding a white feathered fan in both hands

Oil on canvas, 129.5 x 96.5cm (38 x 51 in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F / 1894

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 14: Lippich Elekné.

Private Collection

This portrait was commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Elek Lippich [112171] [111102], a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, who was the artist’s friend and early mentor. Its completion was unusually protracted, with many letters exchanged between de László and Lippich, often with quite combative and sarcastic undertones. Lippich blamed the artist for the numerous delays: “You are hardly likely to be able to finish daubing Mrs L’s portrait ... My wife went there yesterday for the 14th time, and as I’ve heard today ‘it is too early to make any judgement’ – which means it is still devilishly far from being finished … She is completely exhausted by the sittings … whatever happens, she would not sit as a model again for anybody.”^[1]

The reply to this rebuke was sent by the artist from Vienna, that “comforted by the fact that your wife could recover from her fatigue caused by the sittings, I took the opportunity to come to Vienna and gain strength to complete my unfinished picture. I could no longer defer the fulfillment of this desire of mine … it has been a year and a half since I saw such an extensive exhibition.”^[2] This may have been the Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung exhibition at the Künstlerhaus (1 March - 31 May). De László exhibited two pictures in Vienna that year, the genre picture Girl with a Wheelbarrow [9003] and the portrait of his teacher at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Art, Professor Sándor von Liezen-Mayer [4787].

The artist’s next letter was sent from the estate of one of his wealthy patrons, the Sváb family^[3] near Szolnok, which he travelled to a few days earlier to attend the unveiling ceremony of the portrait of the Minister for Justice, Dezső Szilágyi [13102]: “I have decided to take a rest. I am currently staying with the Sváb family, and I shall go to another puszta from here. I feel very well in the fresh air, and I believe I shall work with double speed to finish my picture. I shall return home at the end of this week, but I am certain that this short hiatus has delighted your wife.”^[4]

Madame Lippich’s portrait was exhibited at the Winter Exhibition, but Lippich was not entirely satisfied with it: “I am tearing my hair out about the drawing mistake in my wife’s portrait, which you could have corrected in five minutes.”^[5] In another letter to the artist he complained that the flesh tones seemed too yellow.^[6]

Margit Sziklay was born about 1862, the daughter of Alajos Sziklay and Klára Bellágh. She married c. 1886  Elek Lippich and there were two children of the marriage, Leona (born 1888) and a son Dénes (born 1889). The artist described the sitter in his reminiscences: “[she] was very beautiful at that time, was a typical handsome Hungarian woman, but she had no culture and had few thoughts beyond her household and keeping the furniture clean. She was certainly little help to him in his career, nor could she give him intellectual companionship or share his interest in art.”^[7] She enjoyed spending the summers in Fonyód by Lake Balaton, where they owned a villa. She was often seen in the company of their friends, the László and the Náray-Szabó families, who also owned houses there. The artist knew this circle of friends well, and painted many of them, including Doctor Zsigmond László [13399], Zsigmond László Jr. [110970], Miklós Szabó [7229] and Sándor Szabó [111289].

Margit Lippich died on 6 September 1912, aged 50.

EXHIBITED:        

•Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Winter Exhibition, 1894-95, no. 107 or 243^[8]

LITERATURE:        

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 149

•DLA029-0087, letter from Elek Lippich to László, 29 March 1894

•DLA029-0142, letter from Elek Lippich to László, 2 October 1894

•DLA029-0091, letter from Lippich to de László, 10 October 1894

•DLA029-0143, letter from Elek Lippich to László, 25 November 1894

•DLA039-0108, letter from Ignaz von Wechselmann to de László, 29 November 1894

•NSzL150-0004, letter from de László to Lippich, Vienna, 8 April 1894

•NSzL150-0005, letter from de László to Lippich, 15 May 1894

•NSzL150-0010, letter from de László to Lippich, Sophia, 24 November 1894

•NSzL150-0011, letter from de László to Lippich, Sophia, 1 December 1894

BS 2020