DLA123-0022 Transcription
Hotel Castilla
Toledo
1 May, 1927
Pauly dearest – It’s quite a long time since I wrote to you – Meantime 2 of your letters have come, both so welcome & touching in many important points. The two quiet spells with Aunt Eve[1] & the Breretons must have been grand “prep” grounds for the exam –
It’s coming near now & how relieved we’ll all be when it’s over! Stef[2] I ‘spose has finished his, but we’ll only hear result in 6 weeks – We were v. glad to get Patty’s[3] wire today that he is safely through –
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It is lovely to think that you & Pats will both be at home with us – I expect Stef will get into a “post” as soon as poss. Oh! there is so much to arrange & talk about when we all meet!
Naturally you’ll want to be at Oxford for the Common week, & I should like to be there myself! How wise of you to take some days off before the exam –
About Henry[4] – As I think Dads[5] wrote to you; he has no wish to see him at the present time – We both feel still much too deeply his great disloyalty to us.[6] Henry wrote to Dads, asking him to excuse his action – It was only right that he did do so – If Dads withholds his forgiveness,
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it is because he cannot now at this time do otherwise. As for Violet, I can’t bear to think of her; she who had it in her power to influence Henry, & deliberately chose to go against the family of which she was about to become a member –
We arrived here last evg: & as we were v. tired, we did not begin sight-seeing till after lunch. We remain till tomorrow evg: & then return to noisy Madrid – Dads, as you can imagine is overdone – What work he has been getting through! It is amazing! Now The King[7] wishes to have
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the pictures exhibited here in Madrid, before they go to England – So an exhibition is being arranged for the 11th,[8] & the The King will send the pictures to London with a special man to take them in passenger train –
The Ambassador is overcome with his own likeness (finished on Friday) [6814][9] What a subject! He is extremely like Webster,[10] only fatter, & wears specs over his protruding eyes – Only a great artist could have made something of him – Well, he is also v. glad being in the running with H.M. & sd how nice it is that these pictures (his daughter’s also [6817][11]) will be shown with the Royal Family – This exh: is a further
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Hold up to our departure – Of course it will be most interesting – Benlliure[12] the big man in the Art World here, is shouldering the matter, & it is to be held in the Modern Art Gallery, of which he is the Director.
We have been seeing something of Baron & Baroness Meyendorff[13] – You know his portrait in
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the back studio [possibly 4842]?[14] – He was Russian military Attache in Spain during the war – They have come on bad days, & dreadfully sad one – Lost all their fortune, & lost their two sons (only children) when they were living in Switzerland – The boys were about 18 & 21 — One day they went off without a guide, & never returned & no trace of them was found except a flask & some other small item – Isn’t it tragic! I must go to
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bed now. Pauly darling, how I’m longing to see you & Stef & Patto – & Johnno[15] – & there is so much to arrange, & the house to fix on for Summer.
No more now.
Good-night – & [greet?] yr friend you live with (forget his name!) –
These are great historic days in dear Dads life I’m living – He has to pay the tribute of
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his greatness, everyone wanting to be painted by him!
Hugs & love
Mum
[The following in de László’s hand]
Dearest Pauli –
I am longing to see you at Oxford – on our arrival [about?] [the?] 15 may. Much has taken place here in Spain – which will account in my life – It will interest you – that the Prince of Wales[16] with Prince George[17] spent with me in my studio at the Palace a long time – Glad to hear Patrick is through his main exam – Longing to hear Stephens good result – hoping [he?] will now work with [Patrick?] for a time. By the end of June you and Stephen will be I hope well through –
[Across the bottom of page 7]
Much love from your
Dads –
LR
22/11/2018
&
SMDL
23/09/2022
[1] Eva Frances Guinness (1868-1930) [5440], elder sister of Lucy
[2] Stephen Philip de Laszlo (1904-1939) [4375], second son of Philip and Lucy de László
[3] Patrick David de Laszlo (1909-1980) [9205], fourth son of Philip and Lucy
[4] Henry Guinness de Laszlo (1901-1967) [11664], eldest of the five sons of Philip and Lucy
[5] Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937) [9724]
[6] A reference to Henry’s marriage to Violet Staub (1900-1989) [13180], which took place on 11th January 1927. Neither Philip nor Lucy attended the wedding (see DLA016-0007, letter from de László to Sigmund Münz, 21 January 1927). When, in 1926, Henry had informed his parents of his intention to marry Violet, they counselled putting the wedding off until the end of the 1926-27 school year; the young couple chose not to wait. See also DLA016-0002, letter from de László to Sigmund Münz, 18 December 1926 in which the artist writes of “the heavy cloud” that the impending nuptials were causing.
[7] King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941) [7925]. In the Spring of 1927, de László spent seven weeks at the Royal Palace in Madrid, where he painted portraits of King Alfonso XIII [12400] [12438], his consort Queen Victoria Eugenia (1887-1969) [11735] [12398], and their children, don Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, Prince of Asturias (1907-1938) [112235] [8003] [8004], the Infantes don Jaime (1908-1975) [10852], don Juan (1913-1993) [12015] and don Gonzalo (1914-1934) [8014], and portraits of the two Infantas, doña Beatriz (1909-2002) [8008] [10254], and doña María Cristina (1911-1996) [10854] [112335].
[8] Museo de Arte Moderno, Madrid, 12-16 May 1927. The exhibition was arranged as one of the events celebrating the 25th anniversary of King Alfonso XIII’s accession to the throne.
[9] Sir Horace George Montagu Rumbold (1869-1941) [6814], British Ambassador to Spain
[10] Possibly de László’s butler at the time. See the artist’s reference in his journal (quoted in Rutter, p. 363): “Our nice butler, Webster, stood at the gate, his chest resplendent with medals won in the Great War.”
[11] Mrs Hugh W. Farmar, née Constantia Dorothy Rumbold (1906-2001) [6817]
[12] Professor Mariano Benlliure Gil (1862-1947) [10155], Spanish sculptor, museum director and a good friend of de László
[13] Baron Conrad von Meyendorff (1880-1945) [111504]; Baroness Conrad von Meyendorff, née Nadezhda ‘Nadine’ Vladimirnova Louguinine (1881-1930) [110711]
[14] De László’s Studio Inventory (p. 1, inv. no. 2) outlines the following: “Baron Conrad von Meyendorff was an attaché at the Imperial Russian Embassy up to the date of the Russian Revolution. He then returned to the Continent leaving the portrait [4842] still in the artist’s studio. He never came back to London and it hung in the studio for many years.”
[15] John Adolphus de Laszlo (1912-1990) [11622], fifth and youngest son of Philip and Lucy
[16] King Edward VIII of Great Britain, né Edward Albert Christian George, Prince of Wales; other title The Duke of Windsor (1894-1972)
[17] Prince George of Great Britain; 1st Duke of Kent (1902-1942) [5931]