7897

DESTROYED

Prince Yasuhito Chichibu of Japan 1937

Half-length, wearing full dress uniform with decorations and holding a sword in both hands

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Laib L10972M(289) / C13(29): Prince Chichibu of Japan

NPG Album 1936-7, p. 29

Sitters’ Book II, f. 87: [Japanese characters] Yasuhito. 10.7.1937.

De László began the portraits of Prince and Princess Chichibu [9133] of Japan in London in July 1937 but did not finish them until September. The sitter was in London to attend the coronation of George VI [9123].

The artist recalled that the couple were: “most gracious and overwhelmed Lucy and myself with the most interesting and valuable Japanese presents.”^[1] These included a silver presentation box decorated with a gold chrysanthemum and inscribed: To Mr. de Laszlo, from Yasuhito. The artist had it engraved: Prince Chichibu presented to me this silver box on 12th September 1937 when I finished his portrait. Both portraits are believed to have been destroyed during the Second World War.  

This is one of the artist’s last portraits; he died only two months after its completion. A contemporary photograph of de László’s studio shows him sitting surrounded by recent portraits including the present picture and that of Princess Chichibu as well as those of Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang [6171], The Duke of Kent [5952] and the Duchess of Northumberland [6871].  

Prince Chichibu was born 25 June 1902, second son of the Emperor Taisho (1879-1926) and his wife Empress Temei (1884-1951). He and his brother Hirohito lived with the family of Sumiyoshi Kawamura, a respected ex-naval officer, not far from the Imperial Palace. After Kawamura died in 1904, they rejoined their parents at Togu-gosho, the Crown Prince’s palace in Akasaka. He was educated at Gakushuin Peers' School before being enrolled in the Central Military Preparatory School in 1917 and then in the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1922.

On 28 September 1928 Prince Chichibu married Matsudaira Setsuko, the eldest daughter of Tsuneo Matsudaira, Japanese Ambassador to the United States and Great Britain, and his wife, Nobuku Nabeshima. There were no children of the marriage.

Prince Chichibu was known as the “Prince of Sports” and vigorously promoted Rugby Union in Japan. After attending the coronation of George VI in 1937 he toured Europe and visited Germany. There he attended the Nuremberg rally with Adolf Hitler and became convinced that the future of Japan was linked to Nazi Germany. As battalion commander of Thirty-First Infantry Regiment he was involved in combat operations during the Second World War.

The Prince suffered from tuberculosis and died, aged fifty, 4 January 1953. His widow survived him by forty-five years.

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 378

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 279

•Field, Katherine, with essays by Sandra de Laszlo and Richard Ormond, Philip de László: Master of Elegance, Blackmore, 2024, p. 151

•DLA162-0349, “Kerti ünnepély László Fülöpnél london-hampsteadi otthonában” [Garden Party at Philip de László’s Home in Hampstead], Pesti Hírlap, 21 July 1937, p. 7

•DLA025-0066, letter from de László to the Duc de Gramont, 5 October 1937

MD & KF 2017