3222

UNTRACED

Study portrait 

King Carol II of Romania 1936

Head and shoulders to the right, full face looking to the left, wearing a dark coat over naval uniform, with decorations white shirt and dark tie and a naval cap

Oil on board, 89 x 69.5 cm (35 x 27 ¼ in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: de László / Bukarest [sic] 1936 / III / two sitting [sic]   

Sitters’ Book II, f. 86: Carol / R / Bucharest Feb.- March 1936

Private Collection

De László was commissioned by The National Bank of Romania to paint a formal three-quarter length portrait of King Carol II in military uniform [4220] for the Bank of Romania and he travelled to Bucharest early in 1936. The King was pleased with the portrait and sat for the present picture and a further study portrait in hunting dress [3225], both of which the artist described in a letter to the sitter’s mother, Queen Marie of Romania, “the King expressed the desire to paint [sic] two more sketches of him – one in Navy uniform the other in sporting suit.” ^[1]

The King wore this naval uniform at the memorial service for Grand Duchess Victoria at the chapel in the Cotroceni palace.^[2] De László was also invited and noted that the King had wanted the artist to see him in the uniform, so it is possible that the present portrait had already been commissioned but not yet started.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [4220].

LITERATURE:

•De László letters to Queen Marie of Roumania, dated 1 and 12 March 1936, Arhivele Nationale, Bucuresti, fond Regina Maria personale, V4673 & V4674

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 376, 377

•Moats, Alice-Leone, Lupescu, New York - Holt, 1955, ill.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 268. 270

SMdeL & KF 2014