13692

UNTRACED

Sándor Grünbaum, later Galambos^[1] 1889

Half-length slightly to the right, head turned to the left and looking to the viewer, with a moustache and a small tuft under the lips, wearing a dark buttoned up jacket and a stiff upstanding white collar

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: Laub^[2] / SÁNDOROMNAK [To my Alexander]  

De László had a long-lasting friendship with Sándor Grünbaum’s brother, Dr. Pál Grünbaum [11463], a lawyer and landowner of Ó-Becse.^[3] The artist spent three consecutive summers there from 1889, which proved a formative experience for him, and one which he recalled with pleasure throughout his life. For notes on Ó-Becse, de László’s experiences there, and his relationship with Doctor Grünbaum and his family, see [11463].  

The portrait of Sándor and that of his wife Laura [11930] were commissioned on de László's first visit to Ó-Becse, during the summer of 1889. It is likely that the two pictures, both half length, were envisaged as a pair.

Sándor’s simple clothing contrasts with his wife’s elaborate dress. It reflects the trend in men’s fashion at the time, towards greater informality. The sitter is wearing a dark sack coat with covered buttons and a white collar. This single breasted garment was worn for travel or business.

Sándor Grünbaum was born in Ó-Becse in 1856, one of the seven children of Fülöp Grünbaum (1818-1889) and his wife Rozália Kriszháber. His father was a wealthy merchant and the most prominent and influential member of the Jewish community in Ó-Becse. Sándor was a landowner with a model farm and a vineyard, but he was also an economist and a considerable entrepreneur.  

He established a factory to manufacture starch from maize, in the neighbourhood of the famous Gerber brewery.^[4] The factory had a promising start, but it burnt down after three years. Sándor subsequently undertook to establish a hemp factory and a sugar refinery, but he failed to succeed on account of his poor health. He was the director of the County Economic Society, and his most important contribution to the local economy was the establishment of a very successful milk producers’ cooperative. He also exported fruit and vegetables to Switzerland and participated in a company that planned to raise capital from English banks to start an enterprise exporting frozen pork to Britain. As an economist, he was on the board of directors of the local bank, the Ó-Becse First Savings and Credit Bank. A very popular figure in Ó-Becse, he was elected as town representative at the beginning of the 1880s, a position which he kept until his death. He was also a member of the County Assembly, and was elected as a district representative. Sándor was well known as an entertaining speaker, and contributed humorous articles to the local newspapers, Ó-Becse and its Neighbourhoods, owned by his brother Pál, and Bácska, which had the highest circulation in the county. 

In 1882 Sándor married Laura Engelsmann, the daughter of József Engelsmann, a well-to-do merchant from Ó-Becse. Together they had a daughter, Margit (born 1885). In common with many people with German or Jewish names, they Hungarianised their name to Galambos in 1898. Sándor died on 9 February 1916 in Balatonfüred. After his death his wife continued running his business, selling wine and honey.

PROVENANCE:

Sándor Grünbaum;

Pál Galambos^[5]

LITERATURE: 

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, no. 106, Ph A. von László, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, p. 4

•Fárbás, Zoltán, Régi Arczok (Száz arckép a régi Óbecse közéletéből) [Old Faces. (One hundred character sketches from the public life of Óbecse)], Ó-Becse, 1933, p.  25

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, p. 40

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2004, p. 12, fig. 2

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 14

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 41

BS 2013