2860

Count András Bethlen  1896
Standing half-length to the right, full face, wearing a black díszmagyar, the ceremonial  dress of a Hungarian nobleman, a hat with a black feather (in a feather- holder at the front), and holding a curved  Hungarian sword  before him in both hands
Oil on canvas, 114 x 82.9 cm (44 ⅞ x 32 ⅝ in.)
Inscribed lower right: László F / 1896  [red paint]
Inscribed top left: GRÓF BETHLEN ANDRÁS / FÖLDMIVELÉSÜGYI  M. K. MINISTER / 1890-94  [Count András Bethlen, Royal Hungarian Minister of Agriculture], below the Bethlen de Bethlen coat of arms: a crowned curled snake rampant holding in its mouth an orb surmounted by a cross, the whole surmounted by the nine-pointed crown of a count.

Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum (Hungarian National Museum), Budapest

Történelmi Képcsarnok (The Historical Gallery)

According to de László’s diary^[1] the present portrait was painted in his "new studio in the Bálvány utca" in central Pest, and was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture. He received a fee of 1000 florins for the picture. In the same year the Ministry of Agriculture also commissioned de László to paint the portrait of Count Bethlen’s successor at the Ministry, Count Andor Festetics [5063], for a similar fee. The Artist recalled in his diary: "I painted Count Bethlen in his Hungarian costume, in which he looked well, and he gave me the first souvenir I had received in Hungary: a steel cigarette case with his name engraved on it, and his coat of arms in gold."^[2] Having been sent a photograph of the painting, Count Bethlen wrote to the artist the following year: "I find that in black and white, my expression is a little fierce."^[3]

Count András Bethlen de Bethlen, the descendant of an old Protestant Transylvanian family, was born in Kolozsvár^[4] on 26 July 1847. He studied Law in Budapest and then Political Economy at the universities of Brussels and Leipzig. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament 1873-1882 and then Főispán (Lord Lieutenant) of the counties of Szeben and Brassó^[5] in Transylvania. From 1890 to 1894 he served as Minister of Agriculture in the governments of two prime ministers who were both painted by de László: Gyula Szapáry [111159] and then Sándor Wekerle [111392]. During his tenure he reformed the keeping of agricultural statistics and he established a botanical research institute. In order to promote tourism in his home country, in 1892 he initiated the development of summer resorts in the Tátra mountains (now in Slovakia) and in the Bükk mountains north-east of Budapest. The latter resort was named Lillafüred on Bethlen's suggestion; he modestly declined a request to have it named after him.^[6]   

In 1880 Bethlen married Lívia Mocsonyi de Foen (1862-1944). Their elder daughter Countess Margit Bethlen (1882-1970), a novelist and playwright, married a distant relation in 1901, Count István Bethlen de Bethlen (1874-1946) who was Prime Minister of Hungary 1921-31. Margit [10458] and her husband István [2487] were both painted by de László on his visit to Hungary in 1927. Count András Bethlen died on 25 August 1898 at his estate in Bethlen, Transylvania.

PROVENANCE:
Presented to the National Museum, Budapest, by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1949

EXHIBITED:   

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society Spring Exhibition and Retrospectives of Philip de László, Mihály Munkácsy, János Pentelei Molnár, Samu Petz and László Hűvös, 4 May–30 June 1925 [Műcsarnok, Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat, Budapest, Tavaszi kiállítás és László Fülöp, Munkácsy Mihály, Pentelei Molnár János, valamit Petz Samu és Hűvös László összegyűjtött műveinek kiállítása, 1925. május 4 – június 30.], no. 47

•Rákóczi Museum, Sárospatak, The Bethlens, 20 May 2010–29 August 2010

•Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, The Bethlens, 18 February–29 April 2011

LITERATURE:
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 150

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 45

•NSzL150-0026, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 3 January 1896

•DLA162-0350, Pesti Hírlap, 21 March 1896, p. 7

•DLA066-0049, letter from Count András Bethlen to de László, 16 May 1897

•DLA162-0358, Bethlen, Margit, “László Fülöp három képe” [Three Pictures by Philip de László], Pesti Hírlap, 24 November 1937, p. 4
•DLA043-0098, letter from Dr Ottó Légrády to de László, 4 July 1936

•The Bethlens, Sárospatak, 2010, ill. p. 42

Pd’O 2008