10088

Rejected version

Frau Herman Julius Nohl, née Bertha Oser 1905

Bust-length in three-quarter-profile to the left, a light-pink stole or gown just indicated

Oil on board, 67.3 x 43.8 cm (26 ½ x 17 ¼ in.)

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 49: Bertha Oser.

Private Collection

This portrait was painted in Vienna in 1905, where de László lived from 1904 until his move to London in 1907. It was commissioned by the sitter’s parents before her marriage to the educator and philosopher Herman Nohl and their departure to live in Berlin.

De László rejected this version and left it unsigned. According to the sitter’s granddaughter the family felt the eyes weren’t right; they have been made a lighter shade of brown in the finished picture [10135].^[1] Her face was also refined and the artist used a lighter palette, giving the work a softer effect than the present picture.  

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [10135].

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family 

BS 2020