111904
UNTRACED
Study portrait
Monsignor Vilmos Fraknói, Titular Bishop of Arbe[1] 1899
Half-length in three-quarter profile to the left, looking to the viewer, wearing clerical vestments, a pectoral cross just indicated, hanging on a cord or chain
Oil on canvas [presumed], [dimensions unknown]
Inscribed lower right: László F E / 1899 / Bpesten [in Budapest]
Sitters' Book I, f. 13: Fraknói Vilmos [on a page inscribed in the artist's hand: Budapest. 1899 / május 8., and Gr. Szapáry Gyula / Bubics Zsigmond / Lippich Elek / Hajnal Márton[2] apparently signed by all the signatories on the same occasion]
In 1899 de Lászó was approaching the apogee of his career in continental Europe. In March he began painting Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary [12700]. Later that month he was in Berlin, painting the Imperial Chancellor of Germany, Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst [4485]. He spent April in Vienna, painting many prominent members of the aristocracy. At the end of the month, he wrote from there to his friend Elek Lippich that he was returning to Budapest to finish some portraits, including the portrait of Count Gyula Szapáry, the former Prime Minister [111159].[3] He remained in Budapest for only a few weeks before going to Germany, and then to France and England.
The present painting is an early example of the artist's study portraits, a style of portraiture in which he excelled later in his career and indeed became his hall-mark. The sitter's face is fully finished, but his vestments and pectoral cross and chain are merely sketched in. The portrait was shown at the Winter Exhibition of the Hungarian Fine Art Society. Gábor de Térey, the noted art historian and close friend of the artist,[4] who also knew the sitter, wrote a review of the exhibition. He noted that the painting was completed in two sessions, and that the sitter's features were so true to life and so spontaneously rendered that the spectator can imagine the sitter to be physically present.[5] In an earlier review of the portrait when it was exhibited in Baden-Baden in the summer of 1899 Térey commented that "László seems able to paint with the speed of Van Dyck," and that the quality of his art can best be judged in his portrait sketches.[6] De László attached great importance to the present portrait. He wrote to Elek Lippich from England in December 1899: "Now dear Elek, I eagerly await the opening of the Winter Exhibition. Please tell me in a few lines about the general atmosphere, and then tell me in detail, as I have two very important works there: Fraknóy [sic] and Count Castellane wearing a helmet."[7]
Vilmos Fraknói was painted again by de László in 1907 [5120]. Despite the 26 year age difference between them, the Bishop remained a lifelong friend. He arranged for the artist to paint the portrait of Pope Leo XIII in 1900 [4509], which had an important influence on the artist's career. In June 1919 when the artist appeared before the Revocation Committee.[8] Fraknói was one of two prominent Hungarians[9] who gave written evidence on his behalf and he was completely cleared of accusations of disloyalty to Great Britain, his adopted country.
For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5120].
EXHIBITED:
•Conversationshaus, Baden-Baden, August 1899
•Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 1899
•Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, October 1899
•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat [Hungarian Fine Art Society], Téli Tárlat [Winter Exhibition], Műcsarnok, Budapest, 1899-1900
•Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, Berlin, 1910, no. 1490
LITERATURE:
•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 45
•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 90
•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. 22
•NSzL150-0075, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 28 April 1899.
•DLA090-0050, Dr. Gabriel von Térey, “Brief aus Baden-Baden" [Letter from Baden-Baden], Pester Lloyd, 20 August 1899, p. 5
•NSzL150-0099, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 12 December 1899
•DLA043-0046, Dr. Gabriel von Térey, “Die Winterausstellung im Künstlerhause”, Pester Lloyd, 20 December 1899
•DLA090-0033, German press cutting [undated, presumably 1899]
•DLA162-0022, Pesti Hírlap, 1 May 1910, p. 8
Pd'O 2014
[1]In Hungarian: arbei címzetes püspök. Arbe is now Rab, in Croatia.
[2] Count Gyula Szapáry (1832-1905), Prime Minister of Hungary 1890-2, [111159]; Zsigmond Bubics (1821-1907), Bishop of Kassa (now Košice [2908]); Elek Lippich (1862-1924), Head of the Department of Fine Arts in the Ministry of Education [111102]; Márton Hajnal, professor of mathematics. The latter three were all early mentors of de László who, like Bishop Fraknói, played an important part in his career. We do not know why this company gathered together on 8 May 1899, but the meeting may have been intended for the artist to show them his newly built house and studio in Pálma utca (street) in Budapest.
[3] NSzL 150-0075, op. cit.
[4] Dr. Gábor de Térey (1864-1927) was painted by the artist in 1907 [11881].
[5] DLA043-0046, op. cit..
[6] DLA090-0050, op. cit..
[7] NSzL150-0099, op. cit. The portrait of Count Jean de Castellane was painted at his home near Tours, in October 1899 [[3765].
[8] Established under the British Nationalities (Status of Aliens) Act, 1918, the Revocation Committee had powers to revoke certificates of naturalisation. De László had become a naturalised British subject on 29 August 1914, but in 1917 he was falsely accused of disloyalty and of being "a potential danger to the public safety and the Defence of the Realm", and was interned. He had to appear before the Revocation Committee to clear his name.
[9] His other Hungarian witness was Baron Gyula Forster, Vice president of the Hungarian Society of Fine Arts, who was painted by him in 1913 [11372].