110638

Portrait drawing

Mathilde Marguerite Francken 1920

Head-and-shoulders facing right, head turned slightly to viewer and looking beyond, her long hair partly tied back with a ribbon

Pencil on paper, 18.5 x 11.5 cm (7 ¼ x 4 ½ in.)  

Inscribed lower right: To my dear little Maggy / to patiense modell [sic] / amsterdam / 1920. 20 May PA de László 

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 15: Maggy Francken 20-5-20 Amsterdam

Private Collection

This pencil study was executed when Maggy was fourteen; it was done while de Laszló was painting a portrait of her mother Catharina Francken-Meertens [110667].

Born in 1906, in Surabaya, Indonesia, Mathilde Marguerite Francken, known as Marguerite or Maggy, was passionate about art. With her father’s encouragement to pursue her creative talent, she moved to London to become a professional photographer, setting up her own photography business with her friend Rachel Tennyson in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge. The sitter became a friend of de László’s and the artist allowed her to take some portrait photographs of him in his studio. Later, Maggy took photographs of the artist’s wife and children at home. Like de László, Maggy could be described as a society portraitist, but her medium was the camera. Despite her success – she published in The Tatler magazine – her photography lapsed while working for the Royal Netherlands Embassy from 1940 until 1967. On 11 June 1942 Maggy married Kenneth Hamilton McLaren, a chartered accountant. They lived at Kensington for some time but divorced in 1947; there were no children of the marriage. Maggy McLaren died in 1991 at the age of eighty-five.

PROVENANCE: 

In the possession of the sitter until her death

EXHIBITED:        

•Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László(1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006, no. 34  

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. 10, 63, 65, 69, ill. no. 34

CWS 2006