112951

Drawing

Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg 1899

Three-quarter length full face to the viewer left hand resting on his left hip

Ink on paper, 4.4 x 2.5 cm (1 ¾ x 1 in.)

Sitters’ Book I, f. 3: Max Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg, März 99

Sitters’ Book I, f. 6: In Abwesenheit des Meisters 14/4 99 besuchten folgende hohe Gäste die Stätte stiller Arbeit das Heiligtum der Kunst und besahen die Werke welche “sehr gut in der Farbe sind.”^[1] Max Egon

Sitters’ Book I, f. 28: Max Egon Fst zu Fürstenberg / 24/7 99

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Kézirattára (Manuscript Archive of the National Széchényi Library), Budapest

De László included this sketch of his three-quarter length portrait of Fürst Max Egon II zu Fürstenberg [3360] in a letter to his friend and mentor Elek Lippich [112171] dated 12 April 1899. The artist was in Vienna to paint the Fürst and a pendant portrait of his wife Irma [5297] and their son Hereditary Prince Karl Egon [5300].

Lippich was a Hungarian government minister and responsible for securing de László some of his most important commissions at the start of his career, such as the Bulgarian Royal Family [3937] in 1896. The artist wrote him almost two hundred letters that gave vivid accounts of the portraits he was painting and the important people he was meeting. He describes the present portrait: “life-size, three-quarter length portrait of the Count is also well ahead, his hand on his hip, wearing a wide black coat, holding a cylinder and gloves.”^[2]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3360].

PROVENANCE:

Elek Lippich de Korongh;

Bequeathed to the Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Kézirattára (Manuscript Archive of the National Széchényi Library), Budapest, before 1929

LITERATURE:

•NSzL150-0072, letter from de László to Lippich, 12 April 1899, Vienna

BS 2018