10818

UNTRACED

Genre picture

The Happy Family 1890

A Hungarian peasant, his wife and their baby being fed at the breast, seated outside a cottage, a meal on a table before them, with a pitcher, a loaf of bread and a knife. A string of onions, a bag, coat, and scythe hung up around them, a twig broom and glazed jug on the floor behind the man, who is seated with his back to the viewer.

Oil on canvas, 131 x 98 cm

Inscribed lower left: Laub / 1890   

In his 1913 monograph on de László, von Schleinitz rightly emphasises the quintessentially Hungarian character of this genre painting: "In considering this youthful work one can confidently assert that although László willingly incorporated all the influences of the great variety of artistic groups with which Munich was so richly endowed, he did not allow any of these to dominate him. Indeed in order to avoid even the faintest possibility of becoming unfaithful to his inborn artistic instincts, he escapes back to his homeland and to nature. That is where his ‘Family Happiness’ was created;  a work which is devoid of even the slightest alien influence^[1] and which speaks to us from its innermost self, with natural directness, exploring elementary and primitive living conditions. This genre picture faithfully depicts a Hungarian peasant family in their home with all its detail, with the most intimate knowledge of local conditions and of the soil which nourishes these. A painting with a warm mood is created with the simplest of means."^[2]   

De László began his studies at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Art in Munich in the autumn of 1889. In March the following year he fell severely ill with a relapse of typhoid fever. By the time he recovered, it was too late for him to return to the Academy and so at the end of May 1890 he decided to return home. He describes this period in his memoirs: "Restless as I have been throughout my life, I soon began to paint again and arranged to pay another visit to Dr. Galambos at Ó-Becse. On this visit, I painted a picture, half life-size, called 'The Happy Family', for submission to the Ministry of Arts and Education [to compete for a State scholarship]. It was probably well enough drawn, but had not enough feeling for the harmony of the whole, although it was done with earnestness and complete sincerity I won my second scholarship with ‘The Happy Family’...The picture was exhibited in Budapest, but not sold. I subsequently gave it to Rosa^[3] as a wedding present, but unfortunately she and her husband soon found themselves in money difficulties and had to pawn it, and were never able to redeem it."^[4]   

This was de László's second visit to Ó-Becse, in the province of Bácska in southern Hungary, now Bečej in Serbia. He had become friends with Dr. Pál Galambos [11463], lawyer and newspaper proprietor, and the artist’s most important early patron.

PROVENANCE:

•Krämer, Mrs Gyula, the artist’s sister 

•BÁV 12, May 1965. Sold for 6000 Forint

EXHIBITED:

•Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Winter Exhibition, 1890, no. 307

•Munich Academy [no date]^[5]

LITERATURE:        

•Schleinitz, O. von,  Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1913, pp. 9-10, ill. p. 9, pl. 10

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 58, 61

•Pesti Hírlap, Budapest, 1933, p. 51, ill.

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P. A. de László, Literary Services & Production Ltd., London, 1969, p. 20.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 18, ill. 7

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 7

•DLA068-0091, letter from Ilonka Krämer (later Mrs Gábor Lakos) to de László, 31 December 1912

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

BS & Pd’O 2008