5300

Karl Egon Erbprinz zu Fürstenberg 1899

Half-length in three-quarter profile to the left, head turned to the viewer, wearing a blue sailor suit and cap, his arms folded across his chest

Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 49.8 cm (25 ¾ x 19 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F. E. / Wien 1899 / IV

Fürstenbergische Sammlungen, Schloss Weitra, Austria

De László painted Karl Egon in Vienna in April 1899 while he was working on the three-quarter length pendant portraits of his parents Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg [3360] and his wife Irma, née Countess Schönborn-Buchheim [5297]. The portrait was finished by 12 April when he wrote to his friend Elek Lippich: “I have successfully finished the portrait of Prince Fürstenberg’s eldest son, eight years old, kit-cat.”^[1] 

In July 1899 the artist travelled to the Fürstenberg’s estate, Schloss Donaueschingen in the Black Forest, Germany, to complete the portraits of the sitter’s parents. During his stay he also completed a head and shoulders of the couple’s daughter Leontine [3359], a study portrait of Max Egon in uniform [5291] and Fürstin Irma in Van Dyck dress [112072].

Karl Egon was born in Vienna on 6 May 1891, the eldest child of Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg (1863-1941) and his wife Irma, née Countess Schönborn-Buchheim (1867-1948).  In Vienna on 26 April 1921, he married Countess Franziska Nostitz-Rieneck (1902-1961), daughter of Count Erwein Felix von Nostitz-Rieneck and Countess Amalia Theresa Podstatzky-Lichtenstein. There were no children of the marriage. Karl Egon divided his time between the Renaissance castles of Heiligenberg by Lake Constance and Weitra in Lower Austria, while his father lived in the family’s main residence in Donaueschingen. In 1939 the sitter was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the SS.

In 1941 he succeeded his father as Karl Egon V, Fürst and Landgraf zu Fürstenberg. He died in Munich on 23 September 1973 and is buried in the family crypt at Altweitra.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the sitter’s family

EXHIBITED:

•Conversationshaus, Baden Baden, Collectiv Portrait Ausstellung, August-September 1899, no. 7

LITERATURE:

•Vasárnapi Újság, vol. 48, issue 28, Franklin Társulat, Budapest, 14 July 1901, ill. p. 449

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, pp. 56

•NSZL150-0072, letter from de László to Lippich, 12 April 1899

•NSZL150-0073, letter from de László to Lippich, 22 April 1899

•DLA090-0050, Dr Gabriel von Térey, “Brief aus Baden-Baden" [Letter from Baden-Baden], Pester Lloyd, 20 August 1899, p. 5

•NSzL150-0084 German press cutting, August 1899

•DLA090-0131, German press cutting, 15 August 1899

•DLA091-0012, German press cutting, 24 October 1899

•DLA091-0032, German press cutting, [undated, 1899]

•DLA090-0193, “Kunstausstellung im Conversationshaus”, German press cutting, [undated, presumably 1899]  

AG & BS 2018