8843

MISSING SINCE 2017

Drawing

Religious picture

John Adolphus de Laszlo as ‘The Herald of Peace’ 1916

Standing full length, his right arm raised, his left holding a cross, a drape of material round his left arm and lower torso, a six-pointed star top right [obstructed by mount]

Pencil on pale pink paper, 51.8 x 36.4 cm (20 ⅜ x 14 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed lower right:  László / 1916 XII   

Inscribed lower centre: The Herald of Peace 1917

Inscribed centre right: László / XII   

Laib L8293(622) / C19(28A) 'The Herald of Peace' / Drawing of John 

NPG Album 1912-1916, p. 48, where labelled: The Herald of Peace./ Our Johny / for St. John’s /  - Ambulance charity - / 1917. 

De László made several pictures of religious subject matter during the First World War. The Mocking of Christ [12251] and the Lamentation of Christ [11989] were painted in watercolour, a medium not used by the artist before or after the war but one that he was restricted to when he was imprisoned at Islington Internment Camp December 1917-May 1918. The Denial of St Peter [11423] was painted in oil during Christmas 1918, after the artist’s move to Littleworth Corner [6677], where he was under house arrest until his trial and exoneration in June 1919.  

The present picture of his youngest son John [11622] as an allegorical the Herald of Peace was published in a catalogue printed by the British Ambulance Committee to raise funds for their work on the front lines in France. It features both the Cross of the Christian faith and the Star of David of Judaism - the artist perhaps reflecting on his own religious heritage. He had been born to Jewish parents and converted to Roman Catholicism as a young man. His own children were raised as Protestants.

The church de László belonged to was less important to him than his firm belief in God. Lucy later noted some of the artist’s thoughts on the subject in her diary: “P. began talking on Religion & the up & down phases of World history. I believe in & admire Christ as an Ideal person, a democrat – Not in the Madonna – But why did he come so late? Christians form a small part of humanity & look in the war when all barriers were taken down, look how people went on- Where was Christianity? The Bishop of London on [sic] Trafalgar Square crying Every German is a spy – Miss Warrender  pleased Babies were dying in Germany (during war time),  Two things make me believe in a Higher Power that we call “God” – The conscience and love – Neither of these things can be explained.”^[1]

De László was very active in raising funds for numerous war charities before his internment in September 1917. He donated canvases to British Red Cross ‘empty frame’ auctions that raised in excess of £4,500. These regularly sold for more than those of any other artist: the £1000 paid by Sir Philip Haldin in 1916 [5556] was £150 more than a for a picture by his nearest rival, John Lavery.

The present drawing was later placed in a mount that obscured the inscription at the lower edge and the Star of David in the top right corner, and the artist added a second signature at the centre right of the sheet.

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

By descent;

Missing from a private collection in Portugal since 2017

LITERATURE:         

•British Ambulance Committee to the Service de Santé Militaire, 1917, p. 17, ill.

•The Field, the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper, 16 June 1917, p. 851, ill.

KF 2016