10456

UNTRACED                                                                                                                     

Madame Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, née Magdolna Purgly de Jószás  1927

Half length to the left, head turned looking full face to the viewer, her left hand to her breast holding a long string of pearls, wearing a tiara, a gold chiffon scarf around her shoulders and over her dark dress.                                                    
Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1927 oct.

Sitters’ Book II, f. 56: Horthy Miklósné [below her husband’s signature and the mention: Gödöllő 27 / IX 927]

In the autumn of 1927 de László, accompanied by his wife, travelled to Hungary to paint the portrait of the sitter's husband, Admiral Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, the Regent of Hungary. For the background to this commission and biographical notes on Admiral Horthy, see [5684]. The present portrait is known only from illustrations: notably, a contemporary coloured reproduction was made for the Hungarian Fine Art Society.

De László and his wife stayed as guests of the Regent and Madame Horthy at the Royal Palace in Gödöllő, the Regent's summer residence. Lucy de László relates in her diary that she and Mme. Horthy went for long walks in the park of the palace, during which Mme. Horthy talked of her family and their past life, and how her husband had become Regent.^[1]  Lucy describes Mme Horthy as having “dark, wonderful brown eyes - v. intelligent looking, brown hair, turning v. grey - good figure, well soigné.”^[2] Indeed the artist’s wife had some influence on the composition of the present portrait, for she relates: “[The artist] has been striving to get the two pictures done [the portraits of the Regent and the sitter].  The one of her he started to change yesterday, putting the grey tulle off he had round her head and showing her hair, and draping her in the golden saree [sic]. He took my advice in this as I did not like the grey tulle on her head - and it seems they like it better now.”^[3] Later, when the de Lászlós were staying in Budapest with the artist's friend István Bárczy de Bárcziháza [111342], Mme Horthy paid them a visit. Mrs de László recorded in her diary:  “She stayed quite long - a beautiful creature - we all sat round her... we talked new art principally and she likes to hear herself talk, but she does it in a nice way, suitable to her position... She was most hearty to me saying good-bye and that I must soon come again.”^[4] They met again in 1935 when the de Lászlós returned to Budapest and he painted a second portrait of the Regent [110886].

Magdolna Purgly de Jószás was born on 10 June 1881 at Sofronya, near Arad,^[5] the daughter of János Purgly de Jószás, a landowner, and his wife Ilona Vásárhelyi de Kézdivásárhely. On 22 July 1901 in Arad, she married Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, who was at that time a Lieutenant-Commander in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Horthy was stationed at Pola,^[6] the Empire’s main naval base on the Adriatic, where the couple lived for some years. Their four children were born there: Magdolna (born 1902), died of scarlet fever at the age of sixteen; Paula (born 1903) suffered from tuberculosis for many years and died in 1940;^[7] István (born 1904), who trained as an engineer, was elected Deputy Regent of Hungary in February 1942, but died six months later in an aircraft accident on the Russian front;  Miklós jnr. (1907 -1993), was the only child who survived Mme. Horthy.

The sitter and her children accompanied Horthy on all his postings during his career in the Navy. In 1908 and 1909, when he commanded the cruiser Taurus stationed in Istanbul, the family rented a villa on the Bosphorus. From 1909 to 1914, when Horthy served as Aide-de-Camp to the Emperor Franz Josef, they lived in Vienna. During the First World War they lived in Pola but she saw little of her husband until 1917, when, although he was severely wounded, she was able to visit him. After the collapse of the Dual Monarchy the family returned to Kenderes, their family home. Horthy was elected Regent of Hungary in March 1920 and they then lived in the Royal Castle in Buda, where they only occupied nine of the more than 800 rooms. Their official country residence was in the Royal Palace in Gödöllő. Mme Horthy took little part in public life and was opposed to any dynastic ambitions for her family. She preferred a quiet domestic existence. During their meeting in Gödöllő, Lucy de László noted in her diary:  “She says they don’t go out much in Pest and try to remain home 2 days in the week to read and relax - he  [the Regent] was not accustomed to public life before.”^[8] In contrast to her avoidance of politics and society, Mme Horthy was very active in charitable work,^[9] without employing secretarial assistance. At the approach of every winter she made a broadcast appeal, drawing attention to the plight of the homeless, the unemployed, and wounded veterans. She helped to establish day centres for children, old peoples’ homes, and housing for war widows. She arranged for the collection of warm clothing for soldiers on the Russian front. She started a campaign to help indigent artists, attended many art exhibitions, and also took an interest in the Opera House, where she organised tableaux vivants in aid of artists in need.^[10]     

In October 1944 when her husband was arrested by the Germans and forced to abdicate, she accompanied him to his imprisonment in Bavaria. They were liberated by American forces at the end of the war. Their younger son, Miklós jnr. survived the German concentration camps and was able to join them. They spent their last years in exile in Estoril, Portugal, where Mme Horthy died on 8 January 1959, two years after her husband.  In 1993 her remains were re-interred in Kenderes, the Horthy's family home, together with the remains of her husband and her son Miklós.  In his History of Modern Hungary, the British historian C. A. Macartney described her as “indeed a most graceous, charitable and beautiful lady.”^[11]

EXHIBITED
•Hungarian Fine Art Society (Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat), Téli Kiállítás (Winter Exhibition), Műcsarnok, Budapest, December 1927-February 1928, no. 22, ill.                                                            
•Norishalle, Nürnberg,  Ausstellung Ungarischer Neuzeitlicher Kunst (Exhibition of Hungarian Modern Art),  24 February - 14 April 1929, no. 243
•Venice, XVIII Biennale d'Arte, 1932, no. 48

LITERATURE
•Pesti Napló (Pest Diary), Vasárnap (Sunday), 23 October 1927, ill. pp. 78-9

•Illustrated London News, 29 October 1927, ill.

•Illustrated London News, “Great Figures in ‘A Monarchy in a Vacant Throne’”, 31 December 1927, p. 1181, ill.

•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat (Hungarian Fine Art Society), Téli Kiállitás (Winter Exhibition), Városliget, Műcsarnok, Budapest, 1927-1928, ill.

•Képzőművészet (Fine Art), Vol. II., issue 6 , Szerkesztőség és Kiadóhivatal, Budapest, January 1928, p. 3, ill.

•A Pesti Hírlap Vasárnapja (Pest Herald's Sunday), 2 March 1930, ill.
•XVIII Biennale d'Arte, Venice, 1932, ill. p. 298

•DLA 1933 parcel, László Fülöp Mesterművei a Pesti Hírlap Vasárnapjában (The Masterworks of Philip de László in the Sunday issue of Pesti Hírlap), ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Staughton, London, 1939, pp. 369 & 375                                  

•Bangha, Ernő, A Magyar Királyi Testőrség, 1920-1944 (The Hungarian Royal Guard, 1920-1944), Budapest, 1990, pp. 37-8

•Edelsheim-Gyulai, Ilona, Horthy István Kormányzóhelyettes Özvegye (Widow of István Horthy, the Deputy Regent), Becsület és Kötelesség, 1918-1944 (Honour and Duty, 1918-1944),  Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest,  2001, Vol. I., pp. 68-9; 74; 210-13

•Lázár Károly testőr altábornagy visszaemlékezései (Memoirs of Károly Lázár, Guard Lieutenant General, Nyíregyháza, 2007, p. 32

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László, His Life and Art, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010, pp. 209 & 261, ill. pl. 133

•Sallay, Gergely Pál, Megkésett Elismerés. László Fülöp és a Magyar Corvin Díszjelvény (A belated Reognition.  Philip de László and the Hungarian Corvin Badge of Honour), Katonaújság, Vol. II., No.6, December 2011, pp. 12-19, ill. p. 16

•DLA162-0036, Kézdi-Kovács, László, “László Fülöp lefestette a kormányzót” [Philip de László Painted the Regent], Pesti Hírlap, 2 October 1927

•DLA030-0033, letter from József Wolfner to de László, 3 October 1927    

•DLA162-0173, Pesti Hírlap, 11 October 1927, p. 11     

•DLA162-0375, Rákosi, Jenő, “Bucsuebéd” [Farewell Lunch], Pesti Hírlap, 22 October 1927, pp. 1-2   

•DLA162-0288, Pesti Hírlap, 18 December 1927, p. 7                                                                 

•DLA030-0028, letter from Géza Paur to de László, 3 October 1928                                                                                  •DLA030-0005, letter from István Bárczy de Bárcziháza to de László, 22 February 1928  

•DLA016-0056, letter from István Bárczy de Bárcziháza to de László, 18 October 1928

•DLA162-0358, Bethlen, Margit, “László Fülöp három képe” [Three Pictures by Philip de László], Pesti Hírlap, 24 November 1937, p. 4

•DLA162-0400, Pesti Hírlap, 24 April 1938, p. 4

Pd'O 2010