8774

Antoine XIII-Henri de Gramont  1911

Seated three-quarter length in three-quarter profile to the right, looking full-face to the viewer, wearing a blue suit with a full white collar, playing a drum

Oil on canvas, 65.4 x 48.9 cm (25 3/4 x 19 1/4 in.)

Inscribed top right: à mon ami Guiche / Paris 1911.V. / P.A. de László           

Inscribed top left: Antoine 

Sitters’ Book II, f. 22: May 1911 Antoine de Gramont

Maison de Gramont Collection, Musée National et Domaine du Château de Pau 

This is the first of two portraits de László painted of Antoine XIII de Gramont. The de Gramont family were close friends and considerable patrons of the artist from 1902 when Antoine XI-Agénor, the 11th duc commissioned him to paint two large group portraits, see [8752], at Château de Vallière, Mortefontaine.  

The friendship lasted through the succeeding three generations and de László painted some twenty portraits of the de Gramont family over the years. De László was particularly close to the present sitter's father Armand, 12th duc, and often painted in his studio in the avenue Henri-Martin during his frequent working visits to Paris, where the present portrait was most likely painted.

Antoine XIII-Henri de Gramont, born on 17 June 1907, was the eldest of the five children of Antoine XII-Armand de Gramont (1879-1962) [11801], and his wife Elaine Greffulhe (1882-1958) [5515]. In July 1949, he married Mlle Odile Sublet d' Heudicourt de Lénoncourt (1914-1994) with whom he had one son, Antoine (born 1951). For many years he was President of the Company Sopelem O.P.L., founded by his father for the manufacture of optical instruments. He succeeded his father to the title in 1962 and died on 10 December 1995.

PROVENANCE: 

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED:          

•Musée National du Château de Pau, La Belle époque des Gramont au temps des équipages, 7 October 1994-31 January 1995, handlist no. 35

•Musée National et domaine du Château de Pau, Maison Baylaucq, L’air de famille: portraits d’enfants de la collection Gramont, 17 February-21 May 2017, no. 15

•Musée Basque et de l’histoire de Bayonne, L’air de famille: portraits d’enfants de la collection Gramont, 16 December 2017-8 April 2018, no. 15

LITERATURE:         

•Schleinitz, Otto (von), Künstler Monographien, n° 106, Ph A. von László, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, ill. p. 116 pl. 130

•Ribeton, Olivier, Elisa Fontanelli, L’air de famille portraits d’enfants de la collection Gramont, Les Petits cahier du château de Pau no. 7, France, 2017, p. 38, ill. front cover, p. 38

•Ribeton, Olivier, Elisa Fontanelli, L’air de famille Elkarren eitea, Musée Basque et de l’histoire de Bayonne, France, 2017, ill. p. 25

CC 2008