2829

Study portrait

Baronne Marcel Baeyens, née Suzanne Desmons 1911

Head and shoulders to the left with her head turned to look at the viewer, wearing a pearl necklace and blue bandeau

Oil on canvas, 73.7 x 55.9 cm (29 x 22 in.)

Inscribed lower left: P.A. László  / LONDON. 1911.   

Sitters’ Book I, f. 88: Desmons Baeyens Londres 6 Déc 1911.

Private Collection

In 1911, de László painted a three-quarter length portrait of Baronne Baeyens [2825] that was a great success at the 1912 Paris Salon, and resulted in the artist being elected an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. It was through the agency of Gaston Calmette, director of the Figaro, that de László was asked to execute her formal portrait. The artist’s correspondence with the Baronne suggests that she was a close friend of Calmette, and that the present study portrait was originally destined for him, perhaps to thank him for his introduction.^[1] However, Baronne Baeyens liked it so much that she begged de László to let her buy it, and to make another one for Calmette: “If you want to do me a great pleasure could you sell me the sketch of Calmette? I cannot sleep thinking that this lovely head will go to somebody else when I will be [sic] old I will see it with so much pleasure tell me what you think Calmette does not know anything of the sketch.”^[2] De László agreed to this, and a further sketch for Calmette was painted the following year [111088].

Oakley Williams explained that “to László’s artist eye [Baronne Baeyens] was an inexhaustible source of delight. In his own words he could “never finish painting her.” Every mood and emotion of the moment reflected new beauty in the expressive face […]. While the big portrait was in progress he painted several rapid studies, the swift execution of which was a relaxation from the carefully elaborated compositions [sic]. In these he gave his enthusiasm free rein. One of them [the present one] recalls in style and manner the challenge of Romney’s “Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante”, for, while the face on the big canvas is in repose, this study shows the delicate features lit with laughter and dare-devilry. A smile of reckless roguery curls the red lips, and the superfluity of naughtiness dances in the sparkling eyes – the epitome of the Parisian’s gaiety and joy in life.”^[3]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [2825].

LITERATURE:

•Velhagen & Klasings Almanach 1913, Berlin, Bielefeld, Leipzig, Vienna, 1912, ill. frontispiece        

•Williams, Oakley (ed.), Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, edition de luxe, Hutchinson, London, 1921, p. 173, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 134

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 198, ill. p. 199

•DLA 1933 parcel, László Fülöp mesterművei a Pesti Hirlap Vasárnapjában, ill.

•DLA053-0072, letter from Baroness Baeyens to de László, 19 February 1912

•DLA053-0073, letter from Baroness Baeyens to de László, undated

•László, Lucy de, 1911 diary, p. 178

December

21 Thursday

Some weeks ago P. finished the Baroness Baeyens (3/4 length & a sketch of her – [2829]

CC 2008