112588

UNTRACED

Madame Sándor Sváb, née Ida Franziska Gold de Tata 1893

Seated half-length in profile to the right, head turned in three-quarter profile and looking to the viewer, wearing a white dress with lace collar and full sleeves, a rose at her breast

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: László F. E. / 1893 Sárszög

Inscribed top left: Souvenir amical

A letter from the artist’s brother Marczi mentions the present portrait being painted in July 1893 at the Sváb family estate in Sárszög.^[1] The artist had been introduced to the family through his uncle Jakob Frim, who was married to the artist’s mother’s [8598] sister Anna [111234], director of the most famous mental institution in Budapest. Miss Sváb [111416] was a patient there and her untraced portrait was painted by de László in 1892. The artist had a close relationship with the family and was invited to stay with them for three consecutive summers from 1893. During his visit in 1893 he also made a drawing of the sitter and painted the genre pictures The Serious Question [9877], A Peasant Couple Walking [9004] and in a Landscape A Courting Couple in a Rural Landscape [111738].

He stayed at Sárszög again in May 1894 soon after the unveiling ceremony for the portrait of the Minister for Justice Dezső Szilágyi [13102]: “I have decided to take a rest. I am currently staying with the Sváb family, and I shall go to another puszta from here. I feel very well in the fresh air.”^[2] In 1895 he painted the sitter’s son, János [113581] and a genre picture, Ave Maria [11601], in a nearby estate, at Fábiánpuszta, which also belonged to the family.^[3]

Ida Franziska Gold de Tata was born in Budapest in 1860 daughter of Zsigmond Gold de Tata (1831-1919) and his wife née Szidónia Sváb (c.1839-1916). She married her first cousin Sándor Sváb (1853-1915). They had a son, János (born 1894) and four daughters, Lujza (born 1883), Dóra (born 1888), Alexandra (born 1889) and Maria (born 1900). Alexandra died in infancy and the other three daughters in childhood. The sitter died in Budapest on 15 December 1944.

The portraits of the Sváb family and those commissioned by Mór Schlesinger [111472] were the most lucrative of de László’s early career.^[4] In 1892, he painted the eight-year-old daughter of the sitter, probably Lujza [111416] and in 1895 her son, János [113581]. A portrait owned by Sándor’s uncle was exhibited at the Millennium Exhibition in 1896 [113293]. De László also painted Sándor Sváb’s sister, Flóra Sváb [111077] in 1900.

PROVENANCE:

In Budapest in 1967

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 127-128

•DLA043-0012, letter from Marczell de László to Philip de László, 18 July 1936

BS 2020