4960

The Empress Auguste Victoria 1899

Bust-length in profile to the left, seen from the back with her head turned towards the viewer in three-quarter face, wearing an off-the-shoulder dress with a dark brown flounce around the collar, a feather boa and a large hat, and pearl drop earrings

Oil on canvas, 73 x 57 cm (28 ¾ x 22 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F.E. / Potsdam / 99 XI 16 

Sitters’ Book I, f. 31: Auguste Victoria / N. Palais I.R. / D 16. Nov / 1899.

It was in 1899 that de László first met the sitter’s husband, Emperor Wilhelm II, having just completed a portrait of the German Chancellor Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst [4485] in Berlin. The Emperor expressed his admiration, and, inviting the artist to Potsdam in November that year, commissioned him to paint the present portrait. The Empress did not have time to sit for a formal oil painting, but she “was greatly impressed with the speed with which he [de László] executed his crayon sketches and wanted to give one to the Kaiser.”^[1] It seems that her husband shared her opinion, as the Empress’s lady-in-waiting Countess Therese von Brockdorff confirmed: “The Empress will have telegraphed you this morning about how happy His Majesty is with the portrait, he is very pleased and finds it excellent.”^[2] The Countess was herself painted by the artist in 1899 [2901], and in another letter to the artist wryly remarked: “Until now His Majesty still prefers my portrait to that of the Empress – which is only natural – as I was able to sit for much longer.”^[3] 

According to a letter of December 1906 from Count László Szögyényi-Marich^[4] – between 1892 and 1914 Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in Berlin – there seem to have been plans to have a copy of the painting made.^[5] A copy of the present portrait by another hand is in the possession of the Haus Hohenzollern.  

During his stay in Potsdam in 1899 de László also made a sketch of the Empress’s only daughter, Princess Victoria Louise [5090]. In 1908 he painted a more formal three-quarter length portrait of the Empress for the wardroom of the new German battleship Schleswig-Holstein [4962]. He painted her husband Emperor Wilhelm II on four occasions during 1908 and 1909 [4952] [4789] [4958] [4955], together with a number of preparatory works.  

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4962].

EXHIBITED:

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, 1900

•Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, Berlin, 28 April-30 September 1906, no. 632

LITERATURE:

•Tahi, Anthony “A Hungarian Painter: Filip E. László”, The Studio

Magazine, London, October 1901, Vol. XXIV (24), n° 103, article p. 222, ill. p. 2

•Vollmar, H., “Fülöp László,” Moderne Kunst, Vol. XVII, 1903, p. 245, ill.

•Paul von Meinhold, Wilhelm II. 25 Jahre Kaiser und König, Berlin, 1912, ill. facing p. 184

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, n° 106, Ph. A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig, 1913, ill. p. 35, pl. 38

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 173, 177, 181, 182, 183, 212, 264-5

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 62

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 149

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 10

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, pp. 20, 66

•NSzL149-0021, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 26 September 1899

•NSzL150-0089, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 14 October 1899

•NSzL150-0091, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 25 October 1899

•NSzL150-0094, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 9 November 1899

•DLA060-0034, letter from Katharina Carolath-Beuthen to de László, 11 December 1899

•DLA120-0033, letter from Therese von Brockdorff to de László, 11 December [1899]

•DLA038-0092, letter from de László to Pál Galambos, 21 December 1899

•DLA120-0034, letter from Therese von Brockdorff to de László, 25 December [1899]

•NSzL150-0096, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, [29 November 1899]

•DLA120-0030, letter from Therese von Brockdorff to de László, 24 March [1900]

•DLA120-0062, letter from Maurice Müther to de László, 4 July 1900

•DLA090-0154, German press cutting, Vossische Zeitung, 8 May [1900]

•DLA140-0115, Dr Kovács, Jenő, “László Fülöp”, Új Idők, Vol. 7, issue 9, Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 24 February 1901, p. 189, ill.

•DLA090-0194, German press cutting, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA090-0233, French press cutting, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA090-0254, German press cutting, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA091-0291, English press cutting, The Studio, [undated], p. 20

•DLA121-0042, French press article, Frantz, Henri, “Les peintres de la femme: Fulop Laszlo, “Les modes”, No. 27, March 1903

•DLA140-0163, Velhagen & Klasing Monatshefte, February 1906

•DLA038-0114, letter from Count Szögyényi-Marich to de László, 27 December 1906

•DLA140-0176, Dr. Erdey, Aladár, “László Fülöp festményeinek gyűjteményes kiállítása” [Exhibition of Paintings by Philip de László], Vasárnapi Újság, Issue 15, 14 April 1907, Budapest p. 295

•DLA162-0239, Pesti Hírlap, 14 November 1908, p. 12

•DLA140-0202, The American Review of Reviews, May 1908, p. 550

•DLA140-0244, Colucci, Virginia, Un Maestro del Ritratto: Philip A. Làszló (sic), Siena: L. Lazzeri, 1910, p. 5

ATG & CWS 2014