7823

DESTROYED

Study portrait

Princess Elisabeta of Romania, formerly Queen of the Hellenes, consort of George II of Greece 1924

Head and shoulders to the left, three-quarter face turned towards the viewer, wearing a pale stole round her shoulders, with a string of pearls and pearl drop earrings

Oil on canvas, 82.5 x 61cm (32 ½ x 24 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László  

Laib L11573(799) / C10(24): Queen of Greece

Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 42: Elisabeta / 23 Sept 1924 / Paris / [in the artist’s hand: Queen of Greece]

Studio Inventory, p. 12 (67): A Study of Ex-Queen Elizabeth of Greece. A head study, painted in Paris. 

According to the posthumous inventory of the artist’s possessions, the present portrait was painted in Paris in 1924. There exists a more formal half-length portrait [3273] of the sitter which was also painted in Paris in 1924, but remains untraced. He also completed a portrait drawing [7820] during these sittings.  

De László painted a third portrait [3270] of the sitter for his own pleasure in 1925. It is recorded that he was particularly fond of it, and although the sitter wanted it, he refused to part with it.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [3270].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Paul Leonardo de Laszlo, his third son;

By descent in the family;

Destroyed in a fire in 1989

EXHIBITED:    

•Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, Exhibition of recent Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., September, 1932, no. 47

SMdeL & KF 2014