13008

Erzsébet & Stefanie Mailáth, Daughters of Count József Mailáth 1896

Seated full length, both full face to the viewer, the younger girl holding two pink roses, the other with her arm round her sister, a kettle and teacups on a table to the left and a doll and wolf-skin rug at their feet

Oil on canvas, 140 x 110 cm (55 ⅛  x 43 ⅓ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László Fülöp / 1896 / Perbenyik 

Inscribed top left: ERZSÉBET / STEFANIE   

Private Collection

In 1896 Hungary celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the migration of Hungarian tribes to the Danube basin. De László sent fourteen pictures to the Millennial International exhibition honouring the occasion, which opened in April at the newly built Műcsarnok art gallery in Heroes’ Square, Budapest. He then travelled to Kassa (now Košice in Slovakia) in North-Eastern Hungary to finish the portrait of Bishop Zsigmond Bubics [110798] which he had begun the previous year. He stayed at the Bishop’s Palace and was visited by Count József Mailáth who was impressed by the ability of the young and relatively little-known artist. He invited de László to come to his nearby estate in Perbenyik (now Pribeník in Slovakia) and paint portraits of himself and his family.^[1] This portrait is one of nine the artist made of members of the Mailáth family during his two successive stays at Perbenyik from July to February 1897.

De László made two small oval preparatory studies of Erzsébet [110899] aged seven and Stefanie [112504] aged five and a half and these were illustrated in the family history of the Counts Mailáth de Székhely and the Chateau of Perbenyik by György Cap. The artist’s palette is unusually light compared to his other portraits of this period. The pink and white dresses of the girls are complemented by a bright striped wallpaper with a convolvulus flower design which was purchased by the Countess Mailáth with advice from the artist.^[2] De László used a similar striped wallpaper background in his portrait of Friederike Preetorius [111112] painted shortly after the present portrait.

The portrait was displayed in the library of the Chateau in Perbenyik and was much admired by the family and their visitors.^[3] When the Count saw it framed, he wrote to the artist: “It looks twice as nice! It is superb.”^[4] De László had great empathy for children, which is evident in his early genre pictures and the many preparatory drawings he made for them. These include The Storyteller [10937], Little Lidi [6058] and The First Washing Lesson [11561].  

De László’s visits to Perbenyik and his portraits of the Mailáth family had a profound effect on his career. The Mailáth family were related by marriage to many of the great aristocratic families of Hungary: the Zichy [110805], Széchényi [4236], Andrássy [110812], Pallavicini and Apponyi [2438], and he received numerous commissions as a result of these connections. While staying with the Mailáths he sat to the right of Princess Valerie Windisch-Grätz [111556] at dinner, who invited him to visit her at the Rákóczi Castle in nearby Sárospatak. Opposite him sat Baroness Sennyey, a famous beauty who agreed to sit for him.^[5] Marquis Eduárd (Ede) Pallavicini invited him to teach painting to his daughters.^[6] De László wrote to his friend and mentor, Elek Lippich: “Thus have we advanced - now I have to get closer to them with some good paintings, and this I hope will come about.”^[7] Lippich responded with strong disapproval; he reminded the artist of his humble origins and quoted the old Hungarian proverb: “It is unwise to eat cherries from the same plate as the mighty.^[8] Lippich seemed to fear that he was losing his influence and control over his protegé. The artist’s early portraits were mostly of sitters from the wealthy, mainly Jewish bourgeoisie. Prior to his visit to the Mailáths he painted only two portraits of Hungarian aristocrats, Count András Bethlen [2860] and Count Andor Festetics [5063]. These were both painted in 1896 and commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture rather than the sitters or their family. After his visits to Perbenyik, de László became sought after by the aristocracy of Hungary and Vienna and received increasing numbers of  commissions from among their number.

We know little about the lives of the Mailáth sisters. They were the daughters of Count József Mailáth de Székhely (1852-1940) [110819] [111842] and his wife Countess Mária Széchényi (1863-1932) [111841] [111089]. Their mother was the daughter of Count Pál Széchényi, Minister of Agriculture 1882-1889 [111844] [112206] and served as a Lady-in-Waiting at the Austro-Hungarian court. Count József Mailáth was a Privy Counsellor and a permanent member of the Upper House. In addition to Erzsébet and Stefanie, the couple had three other children: József (born 1895) [111845][113403], Mária (born 1897) and Pál (born 1899). Erzsébet was born in Perbenyik 7 December 1889, remained unmarried and died in Budapest in 1980. Stefanie was also born in Perbenyik 23 February 1891. She married Pál Sztankovánszky de Sztankován (1890-1945) 7 May 1925 and there were no children of the marriage. She died in Mocsolád (in the county of Tolna) 2 May 1952.

PROVENANCE:
By descent in the family;
Sold at auction at Mű-Terem Galéria in Budapest, September 2002, lot 121;

Private Collection;

Judit Virág, Budapest, 19 December 2022, lot 164

EXHIBITED:
•Műcsarnok, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Tavaszi nemzetközi kiállίtás [Spring International Exhibition], 15 April -15 June 1897, no. 36
•Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Budapest, Vonzások és Változások. 18-19 századi magyar festészet magángyűjteményekben [Affinities and Changes. 18th -19th century Hungarian paintings in private collections], 23 March - 21 July 2013, no. 55, ill. p. 151

LITERATURE:

•Pécsi Közlöny, 18 May 1897, p. 2

•Perbenyiki emlék, in: Magyarország és a nagyvilág [Hungary and the World], 17 June 1900, p. 12

•Mailáth, Count József, Egyet-más László Fülöpről [A few things about Philip László], In: Budapesti Hίrlap, 13 November1927 (Translated in DLA111-0141)
•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939,  pp. 155-156

•Cap, György: Élet a kastélyban. A székhelyi gróf Mailáth család és a perbenyiki kastély története. [Life in the Château. The Family History of the Counts Mailáth de Székhely and the Château at Perbenyik]. Nemzetstratégiai kutatóintézet, Budapest, 2008, pp. 131, 265, ill.
•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de Lászlό. His Life and Art. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010, pp. 46-47

•DLA029-0011, letter from Count József Mailáth to de László, 17 August 1896

•NSzL150-0032, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 4 September 1896

•DLA029-0011, letter from József Mailáth to de László, 17 October 1896

•DLA029-0009, letter from Count József Mailáth to de László, 23 October 1896
•DLA150-0040, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 7 December 1896
•DLA029-0148, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 9 December 1896
•DLA150-0041, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 17 December 1896

•DLA043-0060, Silberstein, Dr Adolf , Spring Exhibition at the Künstlerhaus, Pester Lloyd, 1897

•DLA030-0015, letter from József Mailáth to de László, 23 January 1928



Pd’O 2017