111342
UNTRACED
István Bárczy de Bárcziháza 1927
Head and shoulders in three-quarter profile to the right, wearing the fur-collared mantle of a díszmagyar, the ceremonial dress of a Hungarian nobleman.
Oil [support and dimensions unknown]
Sitters’ Book I, f. 85: Bárczy István [wife’s signed aboe: Bárczy Istvánné / London nászúton[1]]
Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 97: Bárczy István
Sitters’ Book II, f. 54: Bárcziházi Bárczy István / London, 1927 Junius 12.
This portrait relates to Bárczy’s third signature and inscription in the Sitters’ Book, indicating that it was painted in London in June 1927, when Bárczy was aged forty-four.[2] It was painted only three months before de László completed the long-awaited commission for Admiral Horthy’s portrait [5684], along with portraits of Mme Horthy [10456], Count István Bethlen, the then Prime Minister [2487], and Mrs Bethlen [10458]. It is very likely that Bárczy, with whom he stayed when he arrived in Budapest to paint these portraits,[3] was instrumental in securing these important commissions, and the present picture could well have been a token of de László’s gratitude for his support.
Bárczy first met de László in Vienna in 1906 when he was private secretary to the Prime Minister of Hungary, Sándor Wekerle [111100], who introduced them.[4] They met again in Vienna in 1910[5] and in Budapest in March 1911, when Bárczy was private secretary to the then Prime Minister, Count Károly Khuen-Héderváry, whom de László was painting at the time [110456].[6] From then on an increasingly close friendship developed between them. In 1912 when Bárczy and his wife Edit visited London on their honeymoon, de László painted a portrait of her [111011] which he gave to the young couple as a wedding present. After the First World War they corresponded regularly, in English and in Hungarian, about political, artistic and social events. Bárczy, as private secretary to successive prime ministers and later as Permanent Undersecretary of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, was at the very centre of social and political life in post-war Hungary and was able to keep de László abreast of current affairs. He also made friends with de László’s brother Marczell[7] [6521] whom he saw frequently and who at times spent Christmas with the Bárczy family.[8]
De László probably painted at least one other portrait of Bárczy, as in 1936 he wrote to him: “You may be interested to know that next summer, the Coronation Year, there will be an exhibition of my works in London, and I hope to include in it the head portrait I painted of you.”[9] However, that portrait was not exhibited and remains untraced.[10]
On many occasions and in a variety of ways, de László relied on Bárczy to respond to his various requests and to carry out errands for him whenever he needed help with his affairs in Hungary, professional or personal.
Bárczy was a connoisseur who through his contacts with the art world was able to help de László with advice, contacts and introductions. In 1933 he wrote to de László suggesting that he should offer to donate one of his portraits of General Görgey, the hero of the 1848-49 War of Independence, to the newly decorated Sándor Palace, the Prime Minister’s residence. When de László agreed to his plan, Bárczy wrote an elaborate draft letter in Hungarian for de László to send to the Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös.[11]
Bárczy’s secretarial assistance was again required when, in 1934, de László decided to donate his painting of Mary Magdalen [2932] to the Museum of Fine Art in Budapest. When he thought of visiting Hungary for two days that year while on his way to Venice, he asked if Bárczy could arrange for him to see Horthy and the Prime Minister.[12] That visit did not come about, but in February 1935 de László received an invitation from the Hungarian Government to paint a second portrait of the Regent.[13] As a personal friend of the Regent, Bárczy played an important part in securing this invitation and in making the practical arrangements for it, see [110886].
There were many other occasions on which Bárczy rendered services to his friend, but perhaps the one that de László himself would have treasured most was Bárczy's behind the scenes role in the award to the artist of the Corvin Badge, a very rare distinction[14] bestowed on foreign citizens[15] who had been of service to Hungarian cultural life in the arts, sciences or literature. In June 1935, shortly after de László's visit to Budapest to paint the Regent, Bárczy wrote: “I asked Hóman[16] to make representations [on your behalf]. ... Rest assured that I shall do everything possible.[17] More than a year later he wrote again, this time in English: “Hóman …promised me quite sure to propose you to the Regent to convey to you the 'Corvin Chain' established for foreign subjects as greatest art distinction”.[18] The Badge was eventually awarded to de László in November 1937, but by then he was too ill to be told.[19]
De László also relied on Bárczy when it came to personal matters. In 1928, he asked him to intervene when his nephew, Dr. Dezső Seeman, was discriminated against and lost his job as a civil service medical officer. Bárczy acted promptly and successfully. It was again to him that de László turned in 1933 when a stranger called Frederick Decsényi attempted to blackmail him, falsely asserting that de László had denounced him to the Hungarian authorities during the First World War, as a result of which he was imprisoned. De László asked his friend to “do [his] best immediately to communicate with the Headquarters of Police and find out who the man is and what he has done. I am sure you have the power to help me in this matter and I beg you to let me have at your earliest convenience a statement in Hungarian and if possible in French, certified by a Notary”.[20]
István Bárczy de Bárcziháza was born in Budapest on 22 October 1882, the son of Isván Bárczy de Bárcziháza (died 1897) and Mária Gyurcsánszky de Gyurcsina (died 1938). He married Edit Luczenbacher de Szob [111011] [111343] in Budapest on 15 April 1912. The couple had a son, Károly ‘Charlie’ (1913-1934), who died of a lung infection while still a university student. Bárczy studied Law and began his distinguished civil service career in the county of Zemplén.[21] At the age of twenty-two he became private secretary to the Prime Minister, General Fejérváry,[22] and he then served as secretary to successive prime ministers. In 1913 he was appointed Ministerial Counsellor and deputy head of the Prime Minister's Office. He headed the Office from 1919, and was appointed Permanent Undersecretary of State in 1922 and later became a Privy Counsellor. As part of his duties he met many visiting foreign dignitaries. He was a member of the National Casino and was elected president of the Park Club in 1936.[23] From 1921 to 1944 he was the keeper of the minutes of the Crown and Ministerial Councils, and thus a witness to all important decisions made by the governments of this period.[24] Bárczy was always an anglophile, and the Hungarian National Socialists attempted to assassinate him in July 1944.[25] After the war he gave evidence at the war crimes trials of leading pro-Nazi politicians, and when the Communists came to power he emigrated to Switzerland, where he died on 18 December 1952. The British historian C.A. Macartney, who met him after the War, described him as “... a delightful old gentleman, the friend not only of Horthy but of all Budapest society and of every decent foreigner who had visited Budapest during the past generation.”[26]
LITERATURE:
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, p. 375.
•Macartney, C. A., October Fifteenth. A History of Modern Hungary 1929-1945, Part I, Edinburgh University Press, 1956, p. xi.
•Macartney, C. A., October Fifteenth. A History of Modern Hungary 1929-1945, Part II, Edinburgh University Press, 1957, p. 303.
•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, ill. 106
•DLA068-0110, letter from Bárczy to de László, 4 October 1910
•DLA030-0003, letter from Bárczy to de László, 18 December 1920
•DLA016-0050, letter from Bárczy to de László, 23 October 1926
•DLA110-0065, Az Est, 23 September 1927
•DLA020-0063, letter from de László to Bárczy, 16 May 1933
•DLA022-0152, letter from de László to Bárczy, 4 August 1934
•DLA022-0144, letter from de László to Bárczy, 5 December 1934
•DLA022-0127, letter from Bárczy to de László, 25 June 1935
•DLA081-0059, letter from Bárczy to de László, 4 August 1936
•DLA024-0076, letter from Bárczy to de László, 13 August 1936
•DLA015-0011, letter from Bárczy to de László, 10 January, [year unknow]
•DLA015-0015, greeting card from István and Edit Bárczy and Marczell László to de László, [date unknown]
Pd’O 2012
[1] ‘London honeymoon’
[2] De László painted the sitter's wife, Mrs. István Bárczy de Bárcziháza in London in 1912 [111011] and in 1914 [111343]. Bárczy signed the Sitters' Book together with his wife on both these occasions, but in his subsequent letters to de László in which he thanks him for these portraits there is no indication that he also sat for the artist on these dates.
[3] DLA110-0065, op. cit.
[4] DLA081-0059, op. cit. Wekerle was painted twice by de László, in 1894 [111392] and in 1896 [111100].
[5] DLA068-0110, op. cit.
[6] DLA081-0059, op. cit.
[7] DLA016-0050, op. cit.
[8] DLA015-0015, op. cit.; DLA015-0011, op. cit.
[9] DLA024-0076, letter from de László to István Bárczy, 13 August 1936.
[10] Bárczy was also painted by Bertalan Karlovszky in 1918 and by Gyula Benczúr in 1919 (DLA030-0003, letter from István Bárczy to de László, 18 December 1920). Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl sculpted a portrait bust of Bárczy in white marble in 1928 (Göcseji Museum, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, Inv. No. 76.3.69).
[11] Three of the artist’s portraits of Hungarian Prime Ministers were already on permanent display in the Sándor Palace: those of Count Gyula Szapáry [111159], Count Károly Khuen-Héderváry [110456] and Count István Bethlen [2487].
[12] DLA022-0152, op. cit.
[13] Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, p.375.
[14] In Hungary only one other Badge is known to exist. It was awarded to a Finnish linguist, Emil Setälä who died before he could collect it. It was presumably awarded for his work on the relationship of Hungarian to the Finno-Ugric group of languages.
[15] De László became a British subject on 29 August 1914.
[16] Bálint Hóman (1885-1953) an eminent historian who at that time (1935) was Minister of Education and Director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
[17] DLA022-0127, letter from István Bárczy to de László, 25 June 1935.
[18] DLA081-0059, letter from István Bárczy to de László, 4 August 1936.
[19] De László died on 22 November 1937.
[20] DLA020-0063, op. cit. There was a brief case in Paris, where Decsényi lived, but it was soon dismissed when the man’s fabrications came to light.
[21] In North-Eastern Hungary.
[22] DLA081-0059, letter from István Bárczy to de László, 4 August 1936.
[23] ibid. These clubs were frequented by the leading social circles of pre-World War II Hungary.
[24] Macartney, C.A., October Fifteenth. A History of Modern Hungary 1929-1945, Edinburgh University Press, 1956, Part I, p.xi. Most of his archives were destroyed during the siege of Buda in January 1945 when his house was bombed, but afterwards the Russians "shut [him] up in a room with all the papers that could be salvaged and told him to make them in to a coherent record". Bárczy's memorandum is one of the principal sources for the history of the period.
[25] Ibid, Part II, 1957, pp. 303-304.
[26] ibid., p. 303.