5624

Monsignor Count Péter Vay^[1] 1906

Half-length in profile to the right, three-quarter face, wearing the black robes of a Roman Catholic priest, his white collar just visible

Oil on board, 81 x 52.5 cm (31 ¼ x 21 ½ in)

Inscribed lower left: László / 1906. IX

Sitters' Book I, f. 33: Mgr. de Vay [together with inscription and signature of Vilmos Fraknói and signature of Ferenc Kollányi, dated Rome, 9 February 1900]^[2]

Sitters' Book I, f. 67: Vay de Vaya [in the artist's hand: 1904 / Vienna]

Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Firenze, Italy

Inventory nº 1890:8555.

This portrait was painted on the Schliersee in the Bavarian Alps, where the artist and his family were on holiday during the summer of 1906, and Count Vay came to stay with them for two nights.^[3] The artist's wife noted in her diary: “P. has painted 3 pictures (portraits) besides little landscapes since being here...a splendid one of Monseigneur Vay, done in 2 or 3 sittings (5 - 6 hours in all).”^[4] Soon after the portrait was painted the sitter wrote to the artist: “Please do not exhibit my large portrait^[5] in Pest this year. The public is already familiar with it from Venice.^[6] It would only increase the number of people who are jealous of you and me, and there are enough of them as it is. Instead you should exhibit the black one [the present portrait]- perhaps this is your most interesting work  - nobody else can create something like that.”^[7] The portrait was not exhibited in Budapest but at the Paris Salon in 1907.

In 1926 Count Vay presented the portrait to the Gallery of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace as well as his valuable collection of clocks and silver to the museum there.^[8] In March 1935, de László visited the Pitti and saw the present portrait, but mistakenly recollected that he had painted it in Tutzing in 1903.^[9] A second portrait of the sitter, painted 1935 [5626] is also in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace. A formal portrait was completed in Vienna in 1904 [5619], now in the Hugh Lane Art Gallery, Dublin and a preparatory drawing [5619] for it is in a private collection.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [5617].

PROVENANCE:

Presented by the sitter to the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in 1926.

EXHIBITED:

•Kunstsalon Schneider, Frankfurt, October 1906, to be confirmed

•Paris, Salon de la Societé des Artistes Français, 1907, no. 931, M. le comte Vay de Vaya, étude

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, p. 224

•Buzinkay, Péter, Főpapi műgyűjtőink a modern kor hajnalán  (1895 - 1924) [Prelates as Art Collectors  at the Beginning of the Modern Age, 1895 - 1924], In:  Magyar egyháztörténeti vázlatok [Essays in Church History in Hungary], ed. Gáspár Csóka, METEM, Pannonhalma - Budapest, 2008/ 1-2, p. 56

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László : His Life and Art, Yale University Press,  New Haven and London, 2010, p. 91

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 91, ill.

•DLA087-0067, letter from Monsignor Count Vay to de László, 20 September 1906

•László, Lucy de, 1902 - 1911 diary, private collection, 14 September 1906 entry, pp. 94, 96

•László, Philip de, January - June 1935 diary, private collection, 9 March entry, p. 56

Carved gilt wood frame, glazed, with plaque:  PHILIP ALEXIUS LAZLO [sic] DE LOMBOS / 1869-1937 / INV. 1890:8555 RITRATTO DELL'ABATE MITRATO DI SAN MARTINO / MGR. CONTE VAY DE VAY AND OF LUSKOD, 1906 / 1926 DONO DELL EFFIGIATO

By permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali. We are also grateful to Dr. Giancarlo Fochesato for his help.

Pd'O 2014