DLA123-0207 Transcription

Villa Sparta

San Domenico

Florence.

Oct. 16th 1934.

Dear Mr de Laszlo

Thank you so much for your letter which I received yesterday & hasten to write to you as I know you must be in a hurry to make all the necessary arrangements for the transport of the pictures [11591][7825][7811][4221].^[1] I suppose exhibitions are necessary things but I am sure all the people who possess the pictures to be exposed must feel

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the same reluctance at parting with them as I do even if it is for three short weeks. As your pictures are the only ones that adorn my walls you can imagine how empty & lifeless they will look without them. If some-thing happens to them I warn you that your life will be in constant danger!!!

Joking apart of course I will send them with the greatest pleasure & I would like to say that I have been told that the best man for packing & transport

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is call Gondrand but perhaps you already know of one.

I must say it is with very mixed feelings that I shall see my Father’s lovely picture [11591] exposed in London, because it is difficult to forget what he was made to suffer & with what injustice & constant persecutions his heart was finally broken.^[2] It is really the irony of fate to think that now it is his picture which must be used for charity when formaly he was only good enough to spit upon.

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Please forgive me for writing like this but any-thing that touches my Father upsets me very much. Perhaps you will under-stand as you knew him & you have caught his beautiful expression in that marvellous picture [11591] which I love more than anything in my possession. Anybody looking at it must realise that the noble beauty of that face can only be the outcome of everything most honest, true & straight & that the dastardly acts he was accused of were the infamous inventions

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of unscrupulous politicians for their own ends & gain. I was very glad to hear this morning that Monseigneur Vay de Vaya^[3] is quite well & is coming to see us one of these days.

I hope you will let the man know who is going to pack the pictures if he must remove the glass on the three small ones or not. My sister’s [7825], brother’s [7811], & mine [4221].

Thank you also very

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much for your letter which I found here on my return from a very lengthy motor tour. I do hope if you come in February that you & Mrs de Lazlo will come & stay with me, it would be a great pleasure.

Hoping to see you in London. | Yrs very sincerely

Helen

Editorial Note:

Princess Helen of Romania, née Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark; consort of King Carol II (1896-1982); for biographical notes, see [4221].

30/03/2020

[1] Transport of the pictures to the exhibition, M. Knoedler & Co., London, Royal Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., 27 November–8 December 1934

[2] During the First World War, Constantine I of Greece, King of the Hellenes (1868-1923) was accused by Prime Minister Venizelos of sympathy towards Germany although Greece remained neutral in 1914. With the support of Britain and France, Venizelos successfully deposed Constantine in 1917 and placed the king’s second son, Alexander, on the throne instead of the eldest son, George, who was also suspected of German sympathies. Constantine went into exile in Switzerland. He returned to Greece in 1920 after the death of Alexander and the electoral defeat of Venizelos and was restored to the throne by a plebiscite in December of that year. War with Turkey (1921-22) and the army’s defeat at Smyrna led Constantine to abdicate again to avoid civil war. He was succeeded by his eldest son as King George II and went into exile in Palermo, Sicily where he died on 11 January 1923. See [11591] for further biographical notes.

[3] Monsignor Count Péter Vay de Vaja et Luskod (1864-1948) [5617]