DLA016-0063  Transcription

Herr Dr Sig. Munz,                                                                            

III Reisnerstrasse 23

VIENNA.

3rd February, 1925.

My dear Friend,

Please forgive the long delay in replying to your last card, for which I thank you, and also for the Argentine newspaper[1] with your excellent portrait drawing in it, which interested me very much indeed. You can imagine how very occupied we were with the boys all at home for the holidays – besides my work in the studio and various other duties.

I am feeling now rather tired, having had no rest since Bad Kissingen and I need a change badly, so now, as the boys have all left us, including Johnnie,[2] we are making arrangements to leave on the 22nd for the Riviera, where I hope to have an absolute holiday, with golf, etc., for about three weeks.[3]

Much has happened since last we met, and I am sure, also, on your side too, and I hope soon to receive some good news from you.

To-day I have written to Freiherr von Oppenheimer, to whom I am handing over the portrait of Count Mensdorff which I did in 1907 [4694] which is to be included in the Verein der Museumsfreunde in Wien until it can be placed in the public Gallery, which at present is overcrowded, until the new extension is made.

Next week my picture of Pope Pius XI [6690], which I painted last summer, is to be officially placed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It is certainly quite quite [sic] an historical event, as he is the first Pope to be placed in such a prominent Institution, in this country.

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Just at present I am painting the retiring American Ambassador [5917], who is leaving London to take up his appointment as Secretary of State in the United States. The picture will be a continuation of the two portraits of Dr. Page [6498] and Davis [4636], which I have already painted for the Embassy here.

I would not call Mr. Kellogg a handsome man – but he is certainly a strong man.[4] I was present, a few days ago at the Pilgrims’ dinner, where all the most prominent people, including the Government, were present, and I must say that his speech, which voiced his future political policy, impressed me very much.[5] He spoke with great determination and loyalty.

Last week I had a visit from the Crown Prince and Princess of Rumania, she is the sister of the late King Constantine of Greece, and a very attractive woman and the Prince wants me to paint her.[6] They also have invited me to go to Rumania to paint a life-size picture of the King and Queen + but I have refused.[7]

I have just received to-day the sad news of the death of the father of my friend, the Duc de Guiche, who died quite suddenly, so he now becomes the Duc de Grammont [sic].[8]

London, as you know, is always in a ferment, and there are many, many attractions from day to day. Just lately I dined with the new French Ambassador Fleuriau, who seems a very intelligent man.[9] He knows London well as he has already spend [sic] many years here.

Then, the other day, we had Prince Lichtenstein [sic][10] here to luncheon, who came over for his nephew’s wedding.

I must not try your patience any longer with such a long letter, but I will just add that we are all well and that I hope we shall soon meet, as we are intending in the summer to go to Gasstein [sic].

So far I have had good news from my brother and he now becomes the sole Director of his concern, and I hope that in a few weeks time he will be a free man,

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after so many years of agony.[11]

I am sending you an illustrated-paper, "The Graphic" which contains some of my work which may interest you.

Let me hear soon how you are and with our united best wishes for the New Year,

Believe me, dear Friend, | Always Yours,

Editorial Note:

Sigmund Münz (1859-1934), Austrian journalist and writer; for biographical notes see [6377].

[1] Possibly the Buenos Aires daily La Nacion, which Münz was Vienna correspondent for from 1920 until his death in 1934.

[2] John Adolphus de Laszlo (1912-1990) [11622], fifth and youngest son of Philip and Lucy de László

[3] On 24th February 1925, de László and Lucy arrived in the French town of Hyères on the Mediterranean coast, southeastern France. A few weeks later, they travelled on to Arles and then Avignon.

[4] The Honourable Frank Billings Kellogg (1856-1937) [5917], American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's

[5] Kellogg was the chief guest at a Pilgrims’ Club dinner held at the Hotel Victoria, Northumberland Avenue on Friday, 30th January 1925; the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill were also in attendance. “‘I thoroughly believe,’ he [Kellogg] said, ‘that one of the great accomplishments of modern times was the Washington Conference on the limitation of naval armaments, and that other conferences will follow, and in time the world’s great standing armies will be reduced and competitive armament will cease’”, see ‘Mr F. B. Kellogg on Naval Cuts. Speech at Pilgrims’ Farewell Dinner’, Westminster Gazette, 31 January 1925.

[6] King Carol II of Romania (1893-1953) [4220], and Princess Helen of Romania, née Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark (1896-1982) [4221]; Princess Helen was the daughter and not the sister of King Constantine I of Greece (1868-1923). The Crown Prince and Princess of Romania were in London in January and February of 1925.

[7] Despite many requests, de László adamantly refused to visit Romania, which he considered Hungary’s enemy. It had invaded Hungary in 1919 and the 1920 Treaty of Trianon had secured large areas of Hungarian territory for Romania. He relented in 1936, accepting a commission to paint King Carol II [4220], a posthumous portrait of his father, King Ferdinand I (1865-1927) [4217], and his mother Queen Marie (1875-1938) [3211] for the National Bank of Romania.

[8]Antoine XI-Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont (1851-1925) [8752] died in Paris on 30 January 1925; his son, Antoine XII-Armand, styled duc de Guiche (1879-1962), became the 12th duc de Gramont [11801]

[9] Aimé-Joseph de Fleuriau (1870-1938), French diplomat who served as Ambassador to London from 1924 until 1933

[10] Prince Friedrich von Liechtenstein (1871-1959); his nephew Prince Ferdinand Liechtenstein (1901-1981); m. 1st (morganatically) London 14 January 1925 (divorced 1934) Sheila (Shelagh) Salome Houston Brunner, created Gräfin von Rietberg on 5 Dec 1951(1900-1983).

[11] In 1906, Marczell ‘Marczi’ Laszlo (1871-1940) [6521], de László’s younger brother, married Irma Witzinger (b. 1885) [112005], an opera singer. Their marriage was unhappy and they separated, probably at the end of the war. Marczi made a number of fruitless attempts at reconciliation which were emotionally wearing. They were eventually divorced in 1928. Irma and Marczi’s son, Michael (“Michl”) developed schizophrenia at around the age of 20 and spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital in Munich.