13560

UNTRACED

Princess Auguste Viktoria von Hohenzollern, later Queen of Portugal 1906

Head only, in three-quarter profile to the left

Red chalk, support to be verified, dimensions unknown

Inscribed lower left: László / Tölz / 1906. IX.

De László made the present drawing of Princess Auguste Viktoria in September 1906 in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Tölz, which is situated on the river Isar, south of Munich. The artist and his wife Lucy took a holiday in nearby Schliersee and came to Tölz to paint the sitter’s grandmother Mathilde, Countess of Trani, née Duchess in Bavaria [10549]. Auguste Viktoria and her mother, Fürstin Maria Teresa von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen [4448] spent much time there, as the Fürstin was severely ill (probably suffering from multiple sclerosis) and died three years later.

Lucy de László wrote about the visit in her diary: “P. has gone this mg: to Tölz, to make a sketch of Countess Trani - He & I were at lunch there on Tuesday.  She was charming to us, so simple & nice in her manner. Kissed me going away. The Poor Princess of Hohenzollern was also there. She is so ill, creeping paralysis, & has got grey since I saw her last, just six years ago, when we were on our way to Budapest.”^[1] It must have been during this visit, that de László made the present drawing of the sixteen-year old princess which was exhibited in de László's first one man show at the Fine Art Society, London in 1907. Several lithographs of it were printed in sepia. The artist gave some to close friends and in some cases inscribed them. In January 1907 Countess Therese von Brockdorff [2901], lady-in-waiting to the German Empress Auguste Viktoria [4962], wrote to de László: “The picture of Princess Hohenzollern is lovely, if only you had not beautified her. I have not seen her yet as an adult and remember her only as a child with those strange white starry eyes.”^[2] 

In the early summer of 1907 de László travelled to Sigmaringen to paint a half length portrait of the sitter's grandmother, Princess Leopold of Hohenzollern, née Princess Antonia de Braganza [4461]. At that time the young princess signed the artist’s Sitters’ Book: Augusta Victoria von Hohenzollern./ Juni 1907.^[3] He reminisced in his memoirs: “After I had finished my portrait of the Princess I painted her young granddaughter, Princess Augusta Victoria of Hohenzollern, the future Queen of Portugal, whom I had first met in Potsdam when she was a child of six.”^[4] The present whereabouts of that portrait [9] is unknown.

Princess Auguste Viktoria of Hohenzollern was born in Potsdam on 19 August 1890, the eldest daughter of Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern and his wife Maria Teresa, née Princess Bourbon-Two Sicilies. She was also the niece of King Ferdinand of Roumania. On 14 September 1913 she married the exiled King Manuel II of Portugal (1889-1932), youngest son of King Carlos I (1863-1908) and Queen Amélia (1864-1951). He succeeded to the throne in 1908 after the assassination of his father and older brother at the hands of revolutionaries. Two years later he was forced to abdicate after the revolution of October 1910 and he moved in permanent exile to England. The couple settled at Fulwell Park in Twickenham, Middlesex, near London. They had no children. King Manuel died at their home in 1932, aged only forty-three. On 23 April 1939 at Langenstein, Baden, the sitter married again, to Carl Robert, Count Douglas,^[5] as his second wife. There were no children of that marriage and Count Douglas died at Langenstein in August 1955. The sitter enjoyed travelling, the decorative arts and gardening. Princess Auguste Viktoria died at Münchhof, Baden on 29 August 1966.

EXHIBITED:          

•Fine Art Society, London, Philip A. Laszlo Portrait Paintings and Drawings, May- June 1907, no. 50

LITERATURE:         

•Magyar Kézrajzok [Hungarian Drawings], Szépművészeti Múzeum, 1907, p. 20

•Schleinitz, Otto (von), Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig , 1913, p. 90, ill. p. 69, pl. 81

•Williams, Oakley (ed.), Selections from the Work of P.A. de László, Foreword by Comte Robert de Montesquiou, Hutchinson, London, 1921, pp. 53-56 and ill. facing p. 52

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London 1939, pp. 224-5, 243

•The Bystander, 3 September 1913, p. 519

•László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, private collection

•DLA120-0041, letter from Countess Therese von Brockdorff to de László, 17 January 1907

•DLA041-0022, letter from Rudolf von Spee to de László, 29 October 1907

AG & CWS 2011