7802
Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark 1919
Half length slightly to the left, full face, wearing a dark suit and holding a monocle in his right hand, all against a dark background
Oil on canvas, 89 x 68.5 cm (35 x 27 ¼ in.)
Inscribed lower right: P A de László / London / Aug 18 1919
Laib L6847(7) / C10(34) Christopher, Prince of Greece
NPG 1913-15 Album, p. 13
Collection of Princess Alexandra of Greece, Mrs Nicolas Mirzayantz
This is among the first commissions de László completed after his release from internment in July 1919. He had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Naturalisation Revocation Committee and was able to resume his painting practice. He painted a formal portrait of Prince Christopher in military uniform in 1922 [7804], which was given by the sitter’s stepson to King Paul I of Greece and it hung at the Royal Palace in Athens.
De László painted numerous portraits of members of the Greek Royal family, including the sitter’s siblings, King Constantine I [11591], Prince Nicholas [7827], Prince Andrew [6622] and his mother Queen Olga [11592]. Many of these were completed during the artist’s visit to the Royal Court in Athens, where he stayed in 1914, invited by King Constantine.
Prince Christopher of Greece was born on 10 August 1888 at the Imperial castle of Pavlovsk in Russia, the youngest child of King George I of the Hellenes and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia [11592], granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I. Like his siblings he spoke five languages, communicating with each other in Greek and with their parents in English. He joined the Hellenic Navy when he came of age. After an army revolt in 1909 he and his brothers were forced to resign their military commissions but were reinstated at the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912. King George was assassinated in 1913 and his family were forced into exile in 1917. They briefly returned to Greece in 1920.
On 1 January 1920 in Vevey, Switzerland, Prince Christopher married a wealthy American widow, May Stewart Worthington Leeds. Her fortune, estimated in the tens of millions of dollars, was inherited from her second husband, a tin plate and railroad millionaire. It helped ease the Greek royal family's exile during the 1920s. The couple had been engaged for six years while the royal court in exile negotiated the terms and arrangements of the marriage. His wife was required to convert to the Greek Orthodox Church and became known as Princess Anastasia after their marriage. She was painted twice by de László once in 1915 [6021] and again in 1922 [7809]. After only three years of married life his wife developed cancer and died in London on 29 August 1923; there were no children.
Prince Christopher moved to Rome and in 1929 married Princess Françoise of France (1902-1953), daughter of Jean d’Orleans, Duc de Guise, pretender to the French throne. The sitter was an accomplished musician, and was considered as playing with the quality of a concert pianist. Immensely cultured and witty, his enduring kindness and generosity meant that he was extremely popular among royalists in Greece. Prince Christopher died in Athens after a short illness in January 1940.
LITERATURE:
•Tantzos, Nicolas G., ed. The Inheritors of Alexander the Great, Atlantic International Publications, 1986, p. 269
•Grèce, Prince Christophe de, Ma Famille Côté Cours, Éditions Lacurne, Paris, 2021, ill. opp. p. 7
KF 2017