7176

Study portrait

Mrs. Arthur Ponsonby, née Baroness Anne Marie von Slatin 1932

Head and shoulders to the right, with head turned and looking slightly to the left, wearing a white blouse with a frilled collar

Oil on board, 71.2 x 45.8 cm (28 x 18 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / 1932 

Private Collection

De László gave this portrait to the sitter as a thank-you for agreeing to pose for his War Picture [2974]. This was painted for the artist’s own pleasure, depicting the effects of the sufferings of war on women. Nearly thirty drawings and oil studies were made but the final picture was never completed.

Baroness Slatin attended the studio at Fitzjohn’s Avenue during the summer of 1932 with her companion Countess Thérèse Eltz who was also persuaded to pose. The artist made four studies in total, a full-length study of the Baroness kneeling in a church interior [4298] and three others that included both her and the Countess; [2974] [7006] & [7944]. The sitter later recalled that her father, Baron Slatin Pasha [7178] also accompanied her on these visits. She remembered the artist as vital, gay and amusing, and thought that he was very good company. They enjoyed lunches with de László and his wife Lucy and remembered the visits as “a cosy encounter among friends.”^[1]

Baroness Anne Marie Slatin was born 12 November 1916 in Vienna, the daughter of Major General Baron Sir Rudolph Slatin Pasha (1857-1932) and his wife Baroness Alice Ramberg (1877-1921). She grew up in the Sud Tyrol and after her mother died when she was four she was brought up by her father and an English governess. Countess Eltz was a close family friend and spent much time with her. She married Prince George Galitzine in 1943 and they had three children: Caroline (born 1944); Alexander (born 1945) and George (born 1946). In 1956 she married Arthur Ponsonby, later 11th Earl of Bessborough. That marriage was dissolved in 1963.

The sitter was a connoisseur of antiques and had a gallery not far from her home in Suffolk. She suffered from failing eyesight in her later years which restricted her activities. She died on 27 November 2007 and was remembered by her family as a woman of great charisma, always interested in people and animals.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE:

•DLA018-0057, letter from Colonel P.R. Phipps to de Làszlό, 24 July 1932

•DLA018-0061, letter from Baron Slatin to de Làszlό, 17 August 1932

•DLA018-0053, letter from de Làszlό to Baron Slatin, 14 September 1932

•DLA033-0011, letter from Thérèse Eltz to de Làszlό, 6 October 1932

•DLA021-0086, letter from Anne Marie Slatin to de Làszlό, 20 July 1933

KF 2017