112402

DESTROYED

POSTHUMOUS

Prince Maurice Victor Donald of Battenberg 1914

Head and shoulders, full face to the viewer and wearing service dress 

Oil on board, 75.6 x 50.8 cm (29 ¾ x 20 in.)

Studio Inventory, p. 34 (176): Head of a Man, dark hair and moustache, black tunic collar

Prince Maurice of Battenberg was killed at Ypres in the first months of the First World War. At the request of his mother, Princess Beatrice [3488], de László agreed to paint a posthumous portrait of him. This was something de László rarely agreed to and only twelve are recorded. Two were of victims of the war, Arthur Rosdew Burn [111215] and Robert Palmer [7071], son of the Earl of Selborne, who referred to Palmer’s portrait as a “miracle of consolation.”^[1] 

De László seems to have rejected this first version as it remained in his studio until his death. The finished picture was not completed until 1916 [3501].  

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Destroyed in accordance with the terms of the artist’s will

KF 2017