4973

Robert Marie Léon, 7th Duc d’Ursel 1920

Seated half length, slightly to the left, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a great coat over his service uniform, his left hand tucked into his Sam Browne belt and holding a sword in his right hand, the ribbon bars of his orders and decorations prominently displayed, including the Officer’s Cross of the Belgian Order of Leopold, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, the Commander’s Cross of the French Legion of Honour, and in the third row, the Belgian Croix de Guerre (in second position) and British Military Cross (in third position)

Oil on canvas, 92 x 71.5 cm (36 ¼ x 28 ⅛ in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: de László, LONDON. 1920 III   

Laib L9581(930) / C (27) 24  

N.P.G. Album 1917-21, p. 72

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 14: Le duc d’Ursel 23 mars 1920

Private Collection

Robert Marie Léon, 7th Duc d’Ursel, first met de László at the artist’s one-man exhibition at Agnew’s in 1913. It was only a brief encounter, but the Duc was particularly struck with the portrait of the Duchess of Montrose [4541]. As he explained years later, her portrait triggered his desire that de László should paint his mother Antonine, the Dowager Duchesse d’Ursel.^[1] This, however, did not happen until 1926, and although it is not mentioned in the artist’s correspondence, that exhibition must also have inspired the Duc to have his own portrait painted. Given the uniform worn in his portrait, one can assume that it was commissioned during the First World War, but that its completion was postponed until the conflict was over.

Between September 1914 and 1917, the artist painted some 76 portraits of men in service dress for their families. In most instances, the soldiers were portrayed before leaving for the front, or whilst briefly at home on leave. A great part of de László’s artistic output during the war consisted of such portraits. Painted for a minimal fee, many letters in de László’s archive indicate that they proved a great comfort to sitters’ families left behind. The sheer number of his war portraits, on the other hand, would also suggest that there was a certain vogue for them. De László’s practice came to an abrupt halt in September 1917 when he was interned on suspicion of being a potential threat to public safety. Fully exonerated after the war, he completed a number of portraits in wartime uniforms that had been requested from him before his arrest. It is likely that this portrait of the Duc d’Ursel was amongst them.

After a few postponements, largely accountable to Robert d’Ursel’s duties as a member of the Belgian Senate, the first sitting took place on Tuesday 23 March 1920.^[2] It seems three additional sittings were planned for the consecutive days.^[3] The Duc had originally commissioned a head-and-shoulders composition from de László, but for the same fee, the artist eventually decided to paint his sitter half-length, in this pose. It was not unusual for the artist to paint a larger portrait when his imagination was fired by a sitter, and the fact that de László also painted a study-portrait of Robert d’Ursel [7099] for his own pleasure at the time would confirm his particular interest in the Duc. That he presented it to Robert d’Ursel would suggest that he also valued him as a friend.

The Duc was delighted with his portrait. Having received black and white photographs of it before the picture was shipped, he wrote to the artist: “I want to tell you even now the excellent impression given by the reproduction.

I had no doubt about that anyway but I had put your work on such a pedestal that I feared a little my family and friends’ disappointment. Works of art are like pretty women to whom we do no favours by singing their praises too much in advance. Yours stood that test and I cannot resist the pleasure in telling you right now, while anticipating the pleasure of recounting very soon I hope the good impression that the painting itself will give. Be sure I truly appreciate the generosity you showed by increasing the dimensions that were originally agreed. The hands, which are mine, highlight the likeness further.”^[4] 

The patronage of the d’Ursel family and their feelings of friendship for the artist endured over many years. In 1929, after the completion of the portrait of Antonine d’Ursel in 1926 [4969], de László presented one of the Duc’s daughters, Hedwige, with her study-portrait [4981] on the occasion of her marriage to Gaston, Marquis de Maupeou-Montbail.

Robert Marie Léon d’Ursel was born in Brussels on 7 January 1873, the son of Joseph, 6th Duc d’Ursel, and his wife Antonine de Mun [4969]. He was educated at the school of the Abbaye de Maredsous, and later graduated in Law at the University of Louvain. On 12 April 1898, in Paris, he married Sabine Franquet de Franqueville (1877-1941). Together they had three children, Henri (born 1900), later 8th Duc d’Ursel, Hedwige (born 1902), and Marie ‘May’ (born 1905), who later became Sister Mary-Columba at the Priory, Hayward’s Heath. The couple shared their time between the Hôtel d’Ursel in Brussels, the Château d’Hingene in Flanders, and their Paris home in the rue de Lille.

On his father’s death in 1903, Robert d’Ursel succeeded to the title as 7th Duc d’Ursel. A man of tact and charisma, he was appointed the King’s Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Denmark in 1906, and to the Court of Russia in 1910. The same year, he was General Commissioner of the Brussels Exposition Universelle. In 1911, he was appointed President of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, a position he occupied until his death. From 1913 until 1936, Robert d’Ursel was Sénateur du Royaume de Belgique, a role he took very seriously.

In 1914, when the First World War broke out, the Duc d’Ursel was forty-one. He signed up with the Belgian Army, serving as Captain on the front line. Promoted liaison officer to the British army, he was eventually sent to London, where the Belgian Military mission used his talent as a diplomat. At that time his family moved to England, and in 1928, they settled again in Brussels and at Hingene.  

Robert d’Ursel was an important figure of the art establishment in Belgium: He was several times President of the Société Royale des Beaux-Arts, President of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, and a member of several royal museum committees. In 1934 he was sent to the Court of St James in London as the King’s Envoy Extraordinary. Amongst the many decorations he received were Officer of the Order of Leopold, Commander of the Crown of Belgium, and Commander of the Legion of Honour.

The Duc had the reputation of being a very fine shot, as reflected in his memoirs, Souvenirs de chasse et de voyages (Hunting and Travel Memoirs). When he was in his forties, gardening, and roses in particular, became a new passion. The rose garden he designed at Hingene was much admired. Robert d’Ursel died in Brussels on 16 April 1955, at the age of eighty-two.

SOURCE: obituary in La Partie Officielle, May 1955

LITERATURE:

•Addington, A.C., The Royal House of Stuart, vol. I, London, 1969-76, ill. facing p. 390

•DLA049-0016, letter from Robert d’Ursel to de László, 11 February 1920

•DLA049-0012, letter from Robert d’Ursel to de László, 26 February 1920

•DLA049-0013, letter from Robert d’Ursel to de László, 16 March 1920

•DLA021-0120, letter from Robert d’Ursel to de László, 13 July 1933

•László, Philip de, 1934 diary, private collection, 25 July entry, p. 109-110

CC 2010