112206

UNTRACED

Count Pál Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsővidék 1896

Dressed in a black

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Count József Mailáth [110819] commissioned de László to paint twelve portraits of members of his family between September 1896 and the spring of 1897. The present portrait is one of two the artist made of his father-in-law, Count Pál Széchényi, who was visiting his daughter’s [111089] family at their castle in Perbenyik.

In his article written for Budapesti Hίrlap in 1927 Count József Mailáth described the portrait:  “A second portrait of my father-in-law in black dress, the likeness is good but the whole is not as characteristic as the small sketch [111844] done before.”^[1] 

De László also described the present picture in a letter to his friend and early mentor Elek Lippich [112171]: “I started to work the day after, also on another picture of his excellency, the old man, who has quite a Velasquezesque head, and sits very well.”^[2] 

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [111844].        

LITERATURE:

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, p. 49

•NSzL150-0040, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 7 December 1896

•NSzL150-0041, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 19 December 1896

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

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