110556    

Teresa Montes de Menéndez, née Teresa Montes Thürler and her son Arturo Matías Menéndez Montes 1930

Señora de Menéndez seated three-quarter length to the left in an armchair, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a black silk long-sleeved evening dress, her left arm resting on the armrest, holding sprigs of mimosas in her right hand, her son in a sailor suit standing behind her to her right, also looking full face to the viewer.

Oil on canvas, 144 x 112 cm (56 ¾ x 44 in.)

Inscribed top right: de László / Paris / 1930

Sitters’ Book. II, f. 64: Teresa M de Menéndez / Arturo Matías Menéndez

Private Collection

The Menéndez family moved to Paris after the death of their second son, Luis Alfonso, in Punta Arenas in 1924.^[1] De László painted this portrait of Teresa, with her third son, Arturo, there between October 1929 and January 1930 for the ‘special’ price of £2000.^[2] The sitter’s husband Jose Menéndez Behety [111945] was also painted. The artist wrote to him 19 November 1929: “It gives me great pleasure to know that you are satisfied with the group portrait, which to continue I much look forward – I certainly have in Madame and your charming son sympatettic [sic] perfect sitters which is a great help towards success.”^[3]

Some eighty years later, Arturo, depicted in this portrait at the age of eleven, clearly recalled the sittings.^[4] During many sessions of one or two hours in length, he found it difficult to stand still for so long, to the point of once nearly fainting. His father would often watch and the artist, “cheerful and agreeable,” talked with the family in French or English as he painted. Of great interest to young Arturo was the artist’s box of chocolates: “he would give me chocolates every once in a while.” He described de László’s Paris studio as about eight metres long, a big window with natural light on one side. Arturo recalled his sailor suit was “not the style of the time” and it and his mother’s dress had both been made especially for the portrait according to the artist’s specific instructions. His mother’s jewellery was her own and both the necklace and the ring were natural pearls, which had previously belonged to an Indian rajah.

Arturo Menéndez remembered the artist wearing, “a dark blouse, a long smock with trousers underneath. On top, he wore a loose overall over his trousers, closed with buttons. The portrait stood on an easel and he would move about quite a bit. He always had the palette in his hand. He had the light coming in from one side and, on the other side he had a table with all his oils, where he would mix them as he painted. The artist did not do a sketch before painting the portrait. He would draw the outlines of us with paint. Once we were located within the painting, he would paint the detail.”

The artist was particular about the choice of frame for his portraits and chose an antique frame, “about two hundred years old from a frame shop in Paris.” He also determined the composition of the portrait, the position of the hands and chose the mimosa flowers depicted.^[5] The sitters were free to discuss the painting with him and give their opinion: “if the portrait should be lighter or darker […] if the necklace should be longer or shorter.”^[6] 

In a letter to the comtesse Roederer [6861], de László wrote of his satisfaction with the double portrait: “Nothing could have given me greater pleasure than to read those enthusiastic expressions about the portrait group of Mme Menendez – I feel it myself – that  [I] succeeded in this difficult composition – mother with a more advanced son together – but above all I have reached to get that distinction – a beautiful expression of Madam – It is one of my best works.”^[7] He underlined this statement by including the portrait in his large retrospective at the Hôtel Charpentier in 1931.

Teresa Montes Thürler was born 22 July 1887 in Magallanes, Chile. She was the daughter of José Montes Pello and Eugenia Thürler Rauss. Her father had emigrated to South America from Asturias, Spain and became an important ranch-owner in Patagonia. Teresa was educated privately and traditionally, studying music, art and needlework.  On 13 June 1908 in Punta Arenas, Chile, at twenty years of age she married José María Menéndez Behety (1876-1951), the second son of José María Menéndez y Menéndez^[8] and María Behety Chapital de Menéndez. José María and Teresa had four children: José Alejandro (born 1909), María Teresa (born 1911), Luis Alfonso (born 1913) and Arturo Matías (born 1918).

Teresa devoted her life to the education and support of her family. When Luis Alfonso died in 1924, she found it too difficult to continue living in Punta Arenas, “the very end of the world.”^[9] Around 1925 the family moved to Europe, where they lived first in Switzerland, for almost a year, and then in Paris. They stayed in Europe until 1936. Their eldest son José Alejandro studied economics in London whilst their daughter Teresa went to finishing school in England and Germany. They only returned to Magallanes, in southern Chile, when the children were older and Teresa Menéndez thought they could all cope with living there. After her husband died in 1951, she began living in hotels. She would stay in Buenos Aires at the Plaza Hotel (where she had a room reserved for her permanent use), in Santiago de Chile at the Carrera Hotel and in Punta Arenas in Patagonia at the Cosmos Hotel. She was welcomed at each hotel as if it were her own home. Teresa Montes de Menéndez died in 1984 in Buenos Aires aged ninety-seven.

Arturo Matías Menéndez Montes was born in Punta Arenas, Chile on 25 January 1918. He was the youngest of the four children. He attended school in Punta Arenas until his family moved to Europe, where he continued his studies in Paris. He did not go to university, but continued his education through his own exhaustive and extensive reading. On returning to South America, he worked in various parts of the family business, see [111945], especially those relating to cattle-breeding in their many different estancias. His principal professional concern was with sheep-farming, and he won many prizes with his Menéndez Montes and Avelina flocks. He was also fascinated by botany and the creation of parks and gardens.

On 7 January 1948 in Punta Arenas, he married María Magdalena Hiriart Suárez, daughter of Alberto Hiriart Corvalan and Susana Suárez Ladouch. They had three children: Arturo Matías (born 1949), María Magdalena (born 1950) and Alberto José (born 1952).

EXHIBITED:

•Hôtel Jean Charpentier, Paris, Exposition P.A. László, June 1931, no. 69^[10] 

LITERATURE:

•Menéndez Sepúlveda, Teresa, Recollections - Arturo Matías Menéndez Montes, for private circulation, 2010

•DLA121-0016, letter from de László to Luis Ramirez, 26 June 1928

•DLA121-0019, letter from de László to José Menéndez Behety, 19 November 1929

•DLA121-0026, letter from de László to José Menéndez Behety, 1 March 1930

•DLA121-0029, letter from de László to José Menéndez Behety, 4 May 1931

With our grateful thanks to members of the sitters’ family for their invaluable assistance in preparing the biography for this entry.

SMdeL 2011

KF 2018