8763

Preparatory work

Louis-René, comte de Gramont 1902

Standing almost full-length to the left, full-face, wearing a tail coat over a waistcoat and trousers, his left hand on his hip, his right arm stretched out to the side. A further pencil sketch in the top right corner with a woman seated full-length and a man standing to the right of her

Sepia and pencil on ivory paper, 49.5 x 34 cm (19 ½ x 13 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed lower right: ... / 1901 Valliére [sic] / László [pencil]

Sitters’ Book, f. 60: Louis René de Gramont / 24 Xbre 1902 / Vallière

Private Collection

This is a preparatory drawing for one of a pair large group portraits of the Gramont family [112087][112088], commissioned by the sitter’s father Antoine XI-Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont. De László made his first visit to Château de Vallière, the de Gramont family seat, in 1902, despite his dating this drawing 1901. He had not yet been introduced to the family in 1901.

The pencil drawing in the top corner is undoubtedly a preliminary composition sketch for the group portrait in which the sitter appeared with his step-sister Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre to the left. In the finished group portrait, the figure of Antoine XI-Agénor was added on the right of the composition. However, the family members never sat together to de László, hence the many drawings, oil studies and compositional sketches made to reconcile those individual studies. A similar pencil sketch can be found on a preparatory work for the portrait of Marguerite-Alexandrine de Gramont [6544].

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [8761]. For a full description of the commission and the subsequent cutting down of the canvases, see [112087].

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

LITERATURE

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 80-81

CC 2010