4588

Baroness Félix Gerliczy, née Princess Elizabeth Ştirbey 1928

Seated almost full-length to the left, full face looking to the viewer, wearing a yellow Hungarian court dress, an elaborate silk gown under a long, wide embroidered veil which hangs from a tiara, decorations,^[1] two strings of pearls, a jewelled choker, a bracelet on her right wrist which rests on the arm of a chair, a folded fan in her left hand and a blue fur-trimmed cloak embroidered with gold behind

Oil on canvas, 165 x 103 cm (65 x 40 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / LONDON / 1928

Laib L16119(807) / C9(32)

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 62: Elsa Gerliczy-Stirbey Dec. 14th 1928

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice

De László briefly passed through Paris in May 1903, when he attended the Salon where his portrait of the duc de Gramont and his family [8752] was exhibited. During his short stay he visited the Ştirbeys at their residence in the Champs-Élysées.^[2] De László had known the family of the sitter’s husband Baron Félix Gerliczy since 1903 when he painted his mother Baroness Ferenc Gerliczy [4590].^[3] The present portrait was commissioned by Baron Félix in 1920 and was planned as a pendant to his own portrait [4585].^[4] He asked for the two portraits to be 165 x 103 cm, in order to harmonise with his other family portraits, which he planned to display together in the dining room of his chateau at Hegyfalu in Hungary.^[5] His own portrait was painted in London in 1922, but arrangements for the painting of the present portrait were repeatedly postponed. De László was working under constant pressure. Baron Gerliczy became increasingly frustrated by the delays. In 1927 he wrote to the artist: “As one who has the greatest admiration for the Master’s works, and as a caring husband and father who wants to ensure that there is a deserving image of his wife for their descendants, I have seen protracted delay in this matter for over seven years. My wife, although not a beauty, has great charm; she has beautiful eyes and above all a beautiful soul and disposition, but during these seven years she has not become any younger, nor more beautiful.”^[6] He also offered to increase the fee of 700 guineas that had been agreed on in 1920, a reduced fee which de László had determined at the time “because of my [Gerliczy’s] financial circumstances and the decades old connection with my family.”^[7] Sittings eventually took place in London in December 1928.^[8]

The portrait shows the sitter wearing the court dress that she wore at the coronation of King Charles IV of Hungary in 1916.^[9] De László told his wife Lucy that the picture “is nearest his ideal in portrait painting – from every point of view.”^[10] The artist was anxious to include it in his forthcoming exhibition at the French Gallery in London. In a letter to the sitter’s husband requesting his agreement to this, de László wrote: “I consider it one of my most interesting pictures of late… The colour scheme, yellow-blue against a dark background, is very charming, and it is a harmony in colour which I have never had the opportunity to do before.”^[11] In a letter to the sitter, he described the painting as “one of my most successful canvases.”^[12] When the portrait was exhibited at the French Gallery in London shortly after its completion, the critics concentrated on de László’s depiction of the sitter’s jewellery. “Baroness Gerliczy Stirbey has given him the opportunity of painting an elaborate diamond and ruby tiara, while slashed across her dress are countless decorations and orders” wrote The Bystander.^[13] The Evening Standard’s critic wrote: “If one has marvellous jewels László must be an extra satisfactory artist to sit to, for he gives full value to the diamonds and pearls worn by his subjects … he evidently enjoyed painting the many orders and decorations in the full-dress portrait of Baroness Gerliczy Stirbey.”^[14] However, Baron Félix was not entirely satisfied. He complained that the Maltese Cross she wears over a diamond brooch was not sufficiently visible, and he asked de László to omit the brooch and substitute the customary black ribbon of the Order of Malta.^[15] The artist refused, replying that “a black ribbon there would make a very unpleasing touch.”^[16] In fact de László hardly ever made changes to a portrait at the sitter’s request.^[17] Ironically, a rare exception (after the most forceful demands by the sitter) occurred in the case of Baroness Ferenc Gerliczy, the present sitter’s mother-in-law, painted in 1903 [4590].^[18]

Princess Elizabeth ‘Elsa’ Ştirbey (Bibesco) was born in Câmpina, Romania, on 15 October 1887, the daughter of Prince Dimitrie Ştirbey (Bibesco) (1842-1913) and his wife Alexandrina de Stoika (1857-1931). She was the granddaughter of Prince Barbu Ştirbey (Bibesco) (1799-1869), the last Hospodar (ruling prince) of Wallachia.^[19] Her first cousin, also called Barbu Ştirbey, was an influential courtier, lover of Queen Marie of Romania and briefly Romanian Prime Minister in 1927. On 8 July 1909, in Paris, Princess Elisabeth married Baron Félix Gerliczy de Arany et Szentgerlistye. Their wedding was a celebrated social occasion, a photograph of it taking up the front page of Femina, a Parisian society magazine.^[20] The couple had four children: Gizella (born 1910), Aliz (born 1912), Gabriella (born 1915) and Antal (born 1917). Antal and Gizella attended boarding schools in England, so that their parents frequently visited London during the 1920’s. Antal became Head of the Office for International Relations of Liechtenstein.

In 1922 the sitter’s husband was adopted by Count István Burián de Rajecz. In 1928 he became a citizen of Liechtenstein, where he was raised to the Order of Counts in 1939. The sitter then became Countess Félix Gerliczy-Burián de Arany, Szentgerlistye et Rajecz. Like many members of Romanian boyar^[21] families, she spent much of her life in France. The Ştirbey family had a residence in the Champs-Élysées in Paris. In later life she lived on her husband’s estates in Hungary, at their residence in Munich, and finally in Nice, where she inherited a villa from her grandfather Prince Barbu Ştirbey (Bibesco), which had previously belonged to the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpaux.^[22] She died in Nice on 13 September 1975.

PROVENANCE:

Countess Gerliczy-Burián;

Presented by her to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice, March 1958

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., May-June, 1929, no. 27

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 44, ill.

LITERATURE:

•Femina, August 1909,  no. 205

•Evening Standard, 22 May 1929, ill.

•The Bystander, 30 May 1929

•Chaleyssin, Patrick, Le Peinture Mondaine de 1870 á 1960, Bibliothéque de l’Image, 1993

•Hart-Davis, Duff., in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László. His Life and Art, Yale University Press, London and New Haven, 2010, pp.75-76

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, pp. 214-215

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 44, ill.

•László, Philip de, 1903 appointment book, private collection, 13 May

•DLA034-0010, letter from Baron Félix Gerliczy to de László, 7 August 1920

•DLA034-0006, letter from Baron Félix Gerliczy to de László, 7 February 1921

•DLA038-0130, letter from Baron Félix Gerliczy to de László, 5 July 1927

•László, Philip de, 1928 appointment book, private collection, 11-15 December

•László, Lucy de, 1929 diary, private collection, 2 January entry, p. 2

•DLA114-0057, letter from Baron Félix Gerliczy to de László, 3 April 1929

•DLA114-0056, letter from de László to Baron Félix Gerliczy, 10 April 1929

•DLA114-0054, letter from de László’s secretary to Baron Félix Gerliczy, 10 June 1929

•DLA114-0059, letter from de László to Baroness Félix Gerliczy, 1 August 1929

We are grateful to Dr Gergely Sallay of the Hadtörténeti Múzeum (Museum of Military History), Budapest, for his help in identifying the decorations worn by the sitter.

Pd’O 2015