6383

UNTRACED

Benito Mussolini 1923

Seated three-quarter length, wearing a dark suit and tie, with his right hand resting on the arm of his carved wood and leather armchair and his left on his knee

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower left: de László / Rome 1923

Laib L11109(760) / C18(3A): Signor Mussolini

NPG Album 1923, p. 49

Sitters’ Book II, f. 33: Benito Mussolini / [in the artist’s hand: Rome / 1923 / April the 10th / on the day of my last sitting]

This portrait was the first of Mussolini painted from life.^[1] It was not a commission, but one de László was extremely anxious to paint given Mussolini’s fame. He had been elected Italy’s youngest ever Prime Minister the previous year. With the help of Baroness Russo, wife of Mussolini’s Private Secretary, he was persuaded to sit to the artist. De László and his wife Lucy stopped in Rome on their return home from Algeria, where he had enjoyed painting the local people [11043] and landscape [9479] during their holiday. He took the opportunity to do the same in Rome and painted an orange seller who was selling her fruit outside Mussolini’s palace [9165].

De László described his impressions of the sitter for The Weekly Dispatch: “‘When he speaks to you, you feel that an electric current is running through your veins.’ M. Laszlo said he had seldom worked under greater difficulties. His studio was in the Palazzo Chigi, next to the room where Mussolini worked, but the premier never knew when he would be free, and it was impossible to arrange for sittings...Mussolini would stride in for half an hour - a staunch, determined figure - and throw himself into his chair, but even then he was not able to rest. Telegrams were read to him while he sat, documents opened, decisions made. ‘In consequence,’ says M. Laszlo, ‘he was not ‘in’ the picture. Only once was he able to relax, and then his whole expression altered.” The artist was impressed with his subject’s physical appearance: “No photograph can do him justice. The upper part of his face is Napoleonic.”^[2] Mussolini presented de László the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy in recognition of his appreciation of the portrait.

Nine years later, de László wrote: “Unquestionably one of my most interesting sitters was Signor Mussolini. From the first moment he impressed me much more even than I had been anticipating, and as soon as he talked his mind justified my expectations. Great soldier, ruthless fighter for his people and country, and stern, unrelenting leader as he is, Benito Mussolini combines all these with a love and understanding of Art. He has two relaxations from his duties; every morning he rides for an hour, and almost every day he plays the violin, which he does with all the feeling of an artist. We were hardly ever alone, as from time to time his secretaries came in and read to him matters of importance and asked him for advice, which was given, after contemplation, with great exactitude and shortness. His courtesy is that of a great gentleman. During the time I had the privilege to paint him the Spanish Royal family came to pay their return visit to the Court of Italy. On all occasions Mussolini kept himself in the background and saw to it that all attention was given to his King.”^[3] The Spanish Royal family were great patrons of the artist and he first painted King Alphonso XIII [7925] and Queen Victoria Eugenia [7933] in 1910.

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born 29 July 1883 in Predappio, Italy, the son of Alessandro Mussolini (1854-1910), a blacksmith, and his wife Rosa Maltoni (1858-1905), a catholic school teacher. He qualified as a teacher and in 1902 and moved to Switzerland in part to avoid military service. His early political leanings were influenced by his father, a socialist and in 1904 he returned to Italy to work as a journalist in the socialist press. He later broke with socialism and supported Italy’s entry into the First World War. He was drafted into the Italian army in September 1915.

In March 1919, Mussolini founded the Fascist Party and quickly gained the support of many war veterans struggling to find employment after the First World War. He organised them into armed squads known as the Black Shirts, who terrorised their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government. By October 1922, the Italian political scene had become chaotic. Mussolini and his Black Shirts marched on Rome, where he presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited him to form a government as Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini began dismantling the institutions of democratic government, and in 1925 made himself dictator, taking the title “Il Duce.” His regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality. After 1936, his official title was “Sua Eccellenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell'Impero” [His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire]. He also created and held, along with King Victor Emmanuel III, the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire, which gave him and the King joint supreme control over the military of Italy.

Mussolini wished to re-establish Italy as a great European power and, in 1935, invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) to add to his new Italian Empire. He supported Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and increasingly cooperated with Hitler and Nazi Germany, the “Pact of Steel” in 1939. Mussolini declared war on Britain and France in June 1940 but was defeated in North and East Africa and the Balkans.

Allied troops landed in Sicily in July 1943 and marched north. Mussolini was overthrown by his former Fascist government colleagues and imprisoned. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The German army moved to occupy Italy, and German commandos rescued the Duce. He was established as the leader of a new government, the Italian Social Republic, though he was more or less a figurehead. As the Allies continued to advance northward through Italy, Mussolini fled towards Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and executed on 28 April 1945.

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923, no. 20

•Rome Biennale, Rome, International Fine Arts Exhibition (Mostra Internazionale di Belle Arti), 1923, no. 8

•M. Knoedler & Co., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., Loan Exhibition held in aid of The Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, June-July 1933, no. 3

LITERATURE:

•Seconda Biennale Romana: Mostra Internazionale di Belle Arti, Roma, Casa Editrice d’Arte Enzo Pinci, 1923, p. 2, ill.

•The Illustrated London News, Saturday, 19 May 1923, front cover, ill.

•New York Herald, Paris, Art Supplement, 1 June 1923, ill.

•The Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica, Friday, 10 August 1923, p. 18, ill. 

•Uj Idők, Vol. XXIX, Issue 52, 23 December 1923, p. 434

•Bulletin d’Art, January 1924, ill.

•The Observer, 29 June 1924

•Emery, Stuart M., “Secretary Mellon Inspires An Artist: De László Paints Chief Officer of the Treasury as a ‘Merchant Prince,’” The New York Times, 9 May 1926, Section IV, p. 5

•Blanco y Negro, 37th year, no. 1876, Madrid, Sunday, 1 May 1927, p. 29

•M. Knoedler & Company, inc. Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O: Loan Exhibition Held in Aid of the Artist’s General Benevolent Institution, London, Strangeways, 1933, p. 11, ill.

•The Daily Mail, 21 June 1933

•The Nottingham Journal, 22 June 1933

•Review of Reviews, July 1933, p. 53, ill.

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 349-351

•Porritt, Arthur, More and More of Memories, London 1947, pp. 176-178

•Gardiner, Alfred George, Portraits and Portents, 1971, p. 87

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 182-183, 184, 196, ill. 104

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 135

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 42

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 46

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 132

•DLA093-0005, press cutting, The Times, 19 April 1923

•DLA093-0049, press cutting, “In the Word: Men & Matters,” The Weekly Dispatch, 22 April 1923, p. 2

•DLA162-0056, Dr Hegedűs, Ádám, “Weekend László Fülöpéknél” [Weekend at de Lászlós], Pesti Hírlap, 3 September 1929, p. 10

•DLA162-0405, Pesti Hírlap, 24 June 1933, p. 7

•DLA023-0118, letter from de László to Vilmos de Ruttkay, 20 May 1935

MD & KF 2019