10531

Princess Elizabeth of York 1933

Seated three-quarter length, wearing a full, white short-sleeved frock with a frilled neck and sky blue sash, and holding a small basket of flowers, a distant view of the Copper Horse at Windsor and a cloudy sky beyond

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 69.3 cm (35 ½ x 27 ¼ in.)        

Inscribed lower left: de László [black ink] / 1933 VI [blue paint]

Laib L17699 (531) / C8 (8)

NPG 1933 Album, p. 24

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 76: Elizabeth. May. 25th 1933.

His Majesty The King

According to Rutter, the artist’s young sitter “was ‘intelligent and full of character,’ but ‘very sleepy and restless’ at her second sitting after having attended Queen Mary’s birthday luncheon party.”^[1] 

De László had already met his sitter when painting her parents the Duke [9123] and Duchess of York [4460], and recalled that “it was a very happy moment when one day the little Princess Elizabeth called at the studio with her Lady-in-Waiting. There was no sign of shyness and she was greatly interested in the portraits of her parents, and made some very amusing remarks.”^[2] According to the press coverage of his painting Princess Elizabeth, it seems that de László enjoyed making her portrait. The Daily Times, 21 June 1933, wrote: “Who are the greatest feminine personalities of the day? Royalty, politicians, and hostesses hurried away from their breakfast tables yesterday, despite the prospect of a long day of receptions, dinner parties, and dances, lasting well into this morning, to discover the judgement of a painter – the famous Mr. Philip de Laszlo. The answer was typical of this little wizard of colour, whose studio is frequented by so many well-known people – Princess Elizabeth of York and the late Anny Ahlers. Their portraits were two of the outstanding impressions of this exhibition in Old Bond-street …Princess Elizabeth sat enthroned among them all, in white frills and a blue sash, but her gilt chair was under a typical English sky, and the glimpse of English countryside was a reminder that she was Elizabeth of England … The portrait is for the Duchess of York, and the Duke specially requested that the Princess should be given her correct name in the catalog. It is ‘Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York’.”^[3] Interviewed by a journalist, de László told him of an amusing event' which took place while the portrait was being painted. At the end of a sitting the Princess remarked confidentially, ‘I am going to tell you something, Mr de Laszlo, that will surprise you.’ ‘Oh’, said the artist, ‘What is that?’ ‘I paint, too, and I’m a very good painter. I’ll bring some of my work next time and show you.’”^[4]

De László painted a landscape view of the Copper Horse in Windsor Park dated 3 June 1933 [11025], which was probably made during a break from painting the present portrait. This was very typical of de László, taking an opportunity to paint a view or scene that caught his eye. Many remained in his studio on his death. Some, as in this instance, were presented by the artist to the subject of the commissioned portrait that had occasioned the painting of the study. Christopher Lloyd^[5] has pointed out that the silhouette of the Copper Horse is just visible in the lower right hand quarter of the painting and it may well have been for this reason that de László made the separate oil sketch of the view from the castle.

EXHIBITED:

•M. Knoedler & Co., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 21 June-22 July, 1933, no. 18.

•Dundee Art Galleries, August 1933, [catalogue number to be confirmed]

•The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Autumn Exhibition, 1933, no. 238

•The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, Royal Children, 5 November - March 1964

•National Portrait Gallery, Elizabeth II: Portraits of Sixty Years, 14 November 1986 - 22 March 1987

•Sotheby’s, Childhood: A Loan Exhibition of Works of Art, 2-27 January 1988, no. 450

•The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Golden Jubilee Exhibition, 2-19 May 2002, The Mall Galleries, London, S.W.1. (not in catalogue)

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 124

•Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, 2024, no. 5

LITERATURE:

•Sunday Mercury, Birmingham, 9 April 1933

•Sunderland Echo, 21 June 1933

•Daily Mail, 21 June 1933

•Daily Sketch, 23 June 1933

•The Illustrated London News, Saturday, 1 July 1933, ill. front cover

•Mid-Week Pictorial, Published Weekly by the New York Times Company, vol. XXXVII, no. 22, 15 July 1933, ill. front cover,

•Bury, Adrian, “The Art of Philip de László: An Appreciation,” Apollo, July 1933, p. 17, ill.

•Dundee Courier, 10 August 1933

•Pesti Hirlap Vasárnapja, 3 September 1933, ill.

•The Illustrated London News, 30 December 1933, p. 1066, ill.

•Asquith, Cynthia, and Bigland, Eileen, eds., The Princess Elizabeth Gift Book, In Aid of the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children, London, Hodder & Stoughton, c. 1935-6), ill. frontis.

•Képes Vasárnap, n.d. (between 1930 and 1937), ill.

•The Sketch, vol. CLXXIII, no. 2245, 5 February 1936, p. 257, ill.

•The Sketch, 5 February 1936, ill.

•L’Illustration, n˚4894, 19 December 1936, p. 491, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 374

•Cornforth, John, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, at Clarence House, London 1996, ill. on front dust cover and facing title page

•Gray, Alison, “Queen Mother’s Favored Portrait to Go on Display,” The Scotsman, 18 April 2002

•Harris, Ed, “The Chocolate Box Tribute,” The Evening Standard (London), 18 April 2002

•Clark, Richard, “National Treasure: Richard Clark Discovers the Queen Mother was a Daring Patron of Contemporary Art,” New Statesman, 18 August 2003

•Marsden, Jonathan, Clarence House Official Souvenir Guide, Royal Collection Publications 2003, p. 51, ill.

•De Laszlo, Sandra, ed., & Christopher Wentworth-Stanley, asst. ed., A Brush with Grandeur, Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2004, pp. 190-91, ill. p. 191

• “A Brush with Grandeur,” Majesty Magazine, Vol. 25, no. 1 (January 2004), p. 22, ill.

•Proudlove, Christopher, “Master of the Portrait,” The Daily Post (Liverpool), 10 January 2004

•Billaut, François, “Philip de László: Portraits en Majesté,” Point de Vue, no 2896 (21-27 Jan. 2004), p. 69, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 245, ill. 126

•Roberts, Jane. Queen Elizabeth II: Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Album. Royal Collection Publications, 2012 p. 15, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 162

•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. 78

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, pp. 33, 48-49, ill. p. 48

•DLA162-0405, Pesti Hírlap, 24 June 1933, p. 7

•László, Philip de, 1933 diary, private collection, p. 1, pasted press cutting, Dundee Courier, 16 December 1933, about the exhibition of the portrait of Princess Elizabeth in Dundee

•DLA162-0247, Pesti Hírlap, 15 December 1936, p. 5

CWS & CC 2008