6530

Madame Adolf Laub, née Johanna Goldreich, the Artist’s Mother and her Grandson, Stephen de Laszlo 1910

She seated, half-length, looking to the viewer wearing a high necked blouse and chiffon stole with hair up and her right hand resting on a picture book, Stephen wearing a sailor suit with his left arm over the book  both seated at a table on which the open book lies

Oil on canvas, oval,  92 x 75 cm (36 ¼ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. László. / 1910. II / London

Laib L5219(531) / C30(27)  Mother and child

NPG 1903-1914 Album, p. 10

Private Collection

De László also made two drawings of his mother [111354] & [11708] during her visit to London in 1910.

Von Schleinitz [op.cit.] describes this portrait in his 1913 monograph on the artist: “In a group portrait of those dear to him, “My mother and my son Stephen”, the artist adopts quite a different tone to his previous direction.  Here his whole conception reminds us of the simplicity of the classic English painters who aim only to enthrall us through their art.  In the pictures of his own family László strikes the most intimate natural tone of painterly expression.  The kind grandmother is explaining a picture book to her grandson – a charming child – who looks freely and unconcerned into the future.  There and then, she becomes comparable to, and reminds us of an earlier work, the engrossing and spiritual ‘Story Teller’ [10937].”^[1] 

Lucy de László mentions the portrait twice in her diary, on 3 February: “January has been a full month – P. finished O’M’s picture [6530], now Stef must be painted in – O’M. is splendid, I am glad P. did this of her, although he sd have begun it earlier, as it delayed us getting away to Munich.”^[2]  And again on 8 March: “I saw Stef on O’Mama’s pic – looking just himself like life! P. had had him in the mg.”^[3]

For biographical notes on the artist’s mother, see [8598] and Stephen de Laszlo [4375].

PROVENANCE:

Marczell László, the artist’s brother;

By descent

EXHIBITED:

•Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition, 1911, catalogue no. 186

•Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Spring 1911, no. 3

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society Spring Exhibition and Retrospectives of Philip de László, Mihály Munkácsy, János Pentelei Molnár, Samu Petz and László Hűvös, 4 May - 30 June 1925 [Műcsarnok, Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat, Budapest, Tavaszi kiállítás és László Fülöp, Munkácsy Mihály, Pentelei Molnár János, valamit Petz Samu és Hűvös László összegyűjtött műveinek kiállítása, 1925. május 4 - június 30.], no. 39 (Property of Marcell László)

LITERATURE:

•Schleinitz, Otto von,  Künstler Monographien, Vol. 106, Ph. A. von László, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1913, ill. pp. 97, 112, pl.114

•Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat (Hungarian Fine Art Society). Tavaszi Kiállitás, Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 1911, ill.

•László, Lucy de, 1910 diary, private collection, 3 February and 8 March entry, pp. 106, 120

KF 2016