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Count László Szapáry 1925

Seated half-length to the left, three-quarter face, wearing díszmagyar (the ceremonial dress of a Hungarian nobleman) and holding a sword

Oil on canvas, 75 x 61 cm (29 ½ x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / LONDON 1925   

Inscribed verso: magyar nemes (Hungarian nobleman)

NPG Album 1919–1925, p. 30

NPG Album 1921–1925, p. 36, Count Leigh

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 46: László Szápáry  Sept. 22nd 1925

Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On loan to the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The sitter served as Hungarian Ambassador to the Court of St James’s from 22 March 1922 to 9 October 1924, the first after diplomatic relations were resumed following the First World War. This portrait may have been commissioned after his retirement, by himself, or the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The sitter’s correspondence with de László shows that they were on friendly terms. He would ask for the artist’s help in promoting cultural contacts between Hungary and the United Kingdom. Thus he requested the artist to assist a young Hungarian sculptor who was visiting London to further his studies,^[1] and on another occasion he asked de László to try and arrange for a Hungarian art critic to contribute articles on Hungarian art to a British art magazine, such as “The Studio.”^[2] For another Hungarian visitor interested in thoroughbred horses, de László arranged an introduction to 2nd Viscount Astor [2608].^[3] It was at the Szápárys that the artist first met the Hungarian Prime Minister Count István Bethlen, who was in London to negotiate the payment of Hungary’s war reparations.^[4] De László took the opportunity to paint his first portrait of him [111344].

Count László Szápáry^[5] was born in Perkáta, Fejér county (central Hungary) on 16 May 1864, the elder son of Count Géza Szapáry de Muraszombat, Széchysziget et Szapár (1828-1898), Lord Steward of the Royal Hungarian Court, and his wife, Countess Mária Győry de Radvány (1840-1908). The Szapáry family came to prominence in the late 17th century; their title of Count dates from 1722. Several members of the family were prominent in politics and Count Gyula Szapáry (1832-1905), a fairly distant relation of the sitter, was Prime Minister of Hungary 1890-1892. He was painted by de László in 1899 [111159]. Szápáry joined the Austro-Hungarian diplomatic service after graduating with a degree in law. He served as attaché at the Austro-Hungarian Embassy to the Court of St James’s 1888-1892. In 1892 he returned to Hungary and was elected to parliament. In 1897 he was appointed Governor of Fiume.^[6] In 1903, when he became the central figure in a dramatic parliamentary scandal, he resigned his post and withdrew from public life. He admitted bribing a member of parliament in order to help his friend and mentor Count Khuen-Héderváry [110456] [111984] (Prime Minister 1903 and 1910-1912) to overcome the obstructionist tactics of the opposition which had paralysed parliament.^[7] Szápáry insisted that Khuen-Héderváry had been unaware of the bribery attempt, and a parliamentary enquiry exonerated the Prime Minister, but he too resigned some months later.

Count Szápáry did not return to political activity until the end of the First World War. When the Dual Monarchy disintegrated in 1918, he supported the Slovene movement for autonomy within the Kingdom of Hungary. In the chaotic conditions of 1919, he cooperated with a smuggler and adventurer, Vilmos Tkálecz Vilmos Tkálecz (1894-1950) in the establishment of a short-lived Prekmurje (Mura) Republic which existed for only a week. Szápáry supported it because of its opposition to the soviet regime of Béla Kun in Hungary. However, the Hungarian communists quickly established their authority in the area. Tkálecz escaped to Austria, and after the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 the region became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later re-named Yugoslavia. In 1921 Szápáry was involved in diplomatic negotiations over the Burgenland, the western strip of Hungary which became incorporated into Austria. That same year Count Isván Bethlen became Hungarian Prime Minister and appointed him to head the new Hungarian Embassy in London.

In 1910 in Steyregg, Upper Austria, Count Szápáry married Countess Irene Ungnad von Weissenwolff (Freiin zu Sonneck und Ennseck) 1880-1969, Lady in Waiting to the Imperial Court and Dame of the Star Cross Order. They had no children. The sitter died in Vienna on 16 October 1939.

LITERATURE:

•Ignotus (Hugó Veigelsberg), A politika mögül (Behind the Political Scene), In Nyugat (West), 1912, no.15, p. 212

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 46, ill.

•László, Lucy de, 1923 diary, private collection, p. 81, entry for 10 May

•László, Philip de, 1925 appointment book, 22 September

•DLA106-0148, letter from Count László Szápáry to de László, 7 May 1923

•DLA015-0043, letter from Count László Szápáry to de László, 4 June 19

•DLA015-0022, letter from Count László Szápáry to de László, undated

Pd’O 2016