111845

Count József Mailáth de Székhely Jr 1896

As a child, seated three-quarter length slightly to the left in a highchair, looking full face to the viewer, wearing a white dress and holding a toy horse

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed middle left: József / 1896 

Inscribed lower right: LF

Private Collection

This portrait is one of eleven the artist made of members of the Mailáth family during his extended stays at their estate in Perbenyik between July 1896 and January 1897. The family were introduced to the artist in 1896 by Zsigmond Bubics, Bishop of Kassa [110798] whose portrait by de László so impressed Count József Mailáth [110819] that it led to the commission to paint himself and his family.

This is one of two portraits the artist painted of the sitter. The other is untraced [113403].  Count József recalled that de László “remained with us for about nine months during which he painted...two pictures of my two-year-old son József, both are exquisite child portraits.”^[1] According to a letter from the Count to the artist, de László was commissioned to make a copy of the present picture.^[2] 

In 1896 de László completed portraits of the little boy’s father, Count József Mailáth [110819][111842], his mother Countess József Mailáth [111089][111841], sisters Erzsébet and Stefanie [13008][112504][110899] and grandfather Count Pál Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsővidék [111844][112206]. A second portrait of his mother [111841] and one of his grandmothers, Stephanie Mailáth de Székhely [110801] were painted in 1897.

Count József Mailáth de Székhely Jr was born in 1895, the eldest son of Count József Mailáth de Székhely (1852-1940) and his wife Maria, née Countess Széchényi (1863-1932). His godfather was Count Aladár Széchenyi and his godmother Marchionesse Ede Pallavicini, née Etalka Mailáth. The young Count pursued his studies in Kassa and Kalocsa. During the First World War he enlisted as a volunteer and continued his law studies while on leave, receiving his degree in 1919.

On 8 January 1920, he married Luise-Anne, née Baroness Schell von Bauschlott (1895-1979), daughter of Freiherr Gyula Ferenc József Schell von Bauschlott (1861-1938) and Rozália Ida Máriássy de Márkus et Batizfalva (1870-1961). They had seven children: Mária Rozália (born 1920), Lujza Anna (born 1922), József (born 1924), Erzsébet (born 1926), Imre (born 1930), Margit (born 1934) and Ilona (born 1936). 

The sitter was a board member of the Interbodrog Tisza Flood Control Association and the National Forestry Association and was later elected its President. He died on 23 January 1939 in Budapest, aged only 43, after a long illness. His widow and their youngest children escaped from the advancing Red Army to Austria but returned to Hungary when the war ended. In 1950, she was imprisoned by the Communists on fabricated charges for six months. She died in 1979 in Budapest.

PROVENANCE:

Count József Mailáth^[3]

LITERATURE:         

•DLA029-0015, letter from József Mailáth to de László, 2 December 1896

•DLA111-0141, Count József Mailáth, Egyet-mást László Fülöpről [A few things about Philip László], In: Budapesti Hίrlap, 13 November 1927

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

•DLA025-0008, letter from István Bárczy to de László, 1937

BS 2024