13322
La marquesa de Valparaíso y del Mérito, née Elena Patiño Rodríguez 1930
Standing three-quarter length to the right and looking to the left, wearing a white organza gown with a flounced skirt, frilled sleeves and neckline and a yellow sash, a jewelled bracelet on her right hand, a ring on her left hand in which she holds a bunch of mimosa, a landscape under a cloudy sky behind
Oil on canvas, 144 x 96.5 cm (56 ¾ x 38 in.)
Inscribed lower right: de László / I 1930
Laib L17701 (882) / C17 (35): Madame Merita [sic]
NPG 1932 Album, p. 2
Sitters’ Book II, opp. f. 54: La Marquesa del Mérito. - / Paris. 15. Janvier 1930.
Private Collection
This portrait was commissioned by the Marquesa del Mérito’s parents, the Bolivian Señor Don Simón I Patiño [6872] and his wife Albina Rodríguez [6876], who were also painted by de László.[1]
He painted Elena del Mérito in January 1930 in his Paris studio at 31 rue Jean Goujon.The artist’s studio inventory records that he was in possession of a preparatory oil sketch for this portrait when he died in 1937.[2] As well as this three-quarter length portrait, the artist also painted a head-and-shoulders study-portrait of the sitter wearing a black mantilla [6883]. There exists contemporary black and white film footage of the artist painting both of these portraits,[3] According to the sitter’s family, the mimosa and the glimpse of the sea in the landscape behind the figure evoke the family’s main holiday residence in Nice.
From contemporary press coverage the present portrait is known to have been particularly admired and was illustrated widely. In July 1933, the reviewer of the exhibition at Knoedler’s wrote in Harper’s Bazaar of “the exquisite grace of the Señora La Marquesa del Merito, with her floating white draperies and plaits of dark hair framing her face.”[4] The Daily Mail[5] described the portrait, together with those of the Countess Howe [5694], Mrs. Philip Kindersley [5867] and the Marchesa Marconi [9979], as being ‘irresistible’ and ‘sumptuous’.
It also proved popular when exhibited at the 1930 Paris Salon. De László wrote to Albina Patiño: “I have already told you that one wishes to reproduce the portrait of the Marquesa del Merito. The Salon Committee deems this portrait very interesting and would like to have a reproduction so as to sell postcards at the Salon.”[6] Señora Patiño gave her permission to the Noyer firm[7] to reproduce it, to de László’s great satisfaction: “I am happy to hear that you have arranged everything with Mr Noyer about the reproductions of the portrait of the Marquesa del Merito. It gives me great pleasure to receive numerous congratulations about the portrait of the Marquesa at the Salon.”[8]
De László was very much in favour of the diffusion of his works, and he regularly sent reproductions to patrons and friends to keep them informed of his latest achievements. However, he endeavoured to keep strict control over the copyright of his works and the quality of the reproductions, which explains how unhappy he was when he discovered that his portrait of the Marquesa inspired Royal Doulton Potteries to produce a china figurine, ‘Pamela’, without seeking his consent (see photograph above). Nevertheless, despite his original letter of complaint, it seems de László dropped the matter when he received apologies from the managing director of the firm.[9]
The marquesa’s portrait became so popular that some would-be sitters expressed the desire to be painted in the same pose. Lady Brocket’s agent at the London art firm Leggatt Brothers made such a request in November 1935,[10]and her pose in the resulting portrait [3616], in open air, is unquestionably reminiscent of Elena.
Elena Patiño was born in Oruro, Bolivia, in 1902, the second daughter of Simón I. Patiño (1860-1947), an industrialist and tin magnate, and his wife Albina Rodríguez (1873-1953). She spent her early years in her native town, but received her main education in Paris, where the family moved on the appointment of her father as Bolivia’s Minister Plenipotentiary to France. She was passionate about music and dance, and became a talented pianist. In June 1929 in Paris, she married José López de Carrizosa y Martel (1895-1963), 3rd Marqués del Mérito[11]by his father, José María López de Carrizosa y Garvey and 15th Marqués de Valparaíso, Grandee of Spain, by his mother, María del Carmen Martel y Arteaga. On her marriage, Simón Patiño gave his daughter an immense fortune as her dowry. Elena’s husband was a gentleman-in-waiting to Alfonso XIII, an experienced pilot and reserve lieutenant in the Spanish Air Force and a skilled hunter of deer and wild boar. Elena and José had one daughter, Victoria Elena López de Carrizosa y Patiño (born 1932). In May 1941, when her father distributed the majority of his estate to his family, she became one of the world’s wealthiest women, but she died the following year after a short illness, on 19 January 1942, aged thirty-nine, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Her husband remarried and survived her until 1963.
EXHIBITED:
•Paris, Exposition annuelle des Beaux-Arts, 1930, no. 1251
•Hôtel Charpentier, Paris, Exposition P. A László, June 1931, no. 26
•M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., London, Portraits by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., Loan Exhibition held in aid of The Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, June - July, 1933, no. 25
LITERATURE:
•Beaux-arts: Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité, 1930, p. 17, ill.
•The American Magazine of Art, Vol. 21, no. 7 (July 1930), p. 415, ill.
•Bury, Adrian, “The Art of Philip de László: An Appreciation,” Apollo, July 1933, p. 21, ill.
•DLA 1930 parcel, Le Figaro, Supplément artistique illustré, June 1930, front cover, ill.
•DLA 1930 parcel, Blanco y Negro, 29 June 1930, ill.
•Britannia and Eve, Vol. 2, no. 9, September 1930, front cover, ill.
•DLA 1931 parcel, Tidens Kvinder, 9th year, no.18, front cover, ill.
•The Daily Mail, 21 June, 1933
•The Illustrated London News, 24 June, 1933, p. 941, ill.
•DLA 1933 parcel, A.B.C. Domingo, 17 September 1933, ill.
•Pesti Hírlap, Budapest, 1933, ill. p. 14
•“Portraits by the Celebrated Painter P. A. de László, from his Recent Exhibition at Knoedler’s Galleries,” The Studio, London, Vol. CVI (106), no. 986, September 1933, pp. 148-150, ill. p. 148
•Woman’s Journal, Vol. XVI, no. 95, September 1935, front cover, ill.
•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 222
•DLA081-0183, letter from de László to Señora Simón de Patiño, 17 April 1930
•DLA081-0181, letter from de László to Señora Simón de Patiño, 5 May 1930
•DLA162-0405, Pesti Hírlap, 24 June 1933, p. 7
•DLA020-0008, letter from Robert Morley to de László, 25 June 1933
•DLA103-0032, press cutting from Harper’s Bazaar, 1 July 1933
•DLA023-0366, letter from the Managing Director of Doulton & Co Ltd. to P.A. de László, 18 August 1933
•DLA023-0074, letter from de László to Luis M. Carreras Saavedra,[12] 20 December 1934
•DLA059-0052, letter from H.A Leggatt of Leggatt Brothers to de László, 21 November 1935
SMdeL & CC 2011
[1] Their portraits were meant to be completed shortly after the present one, but because of the artist’s busy schedule, Albina was painted a few months later, and Simón Patiño the following year. It is likely that they had been introduced to de László by their daughter Graziella de Ortiz Linares [6875], who was first portrayed by the artist in 1928. Her sister Luz-Mila was also painted by him in 1931 [6884].
[2] See Studio Inventory, p. 58 (301), which stipulates that it was later “given to Lady Forres in accordance with the Gifts Clause in the Artist’s Will.” Lady Forres [3153], who was first painted by the artist in 1922, had become a close friend of the family.
[3] De László was given a ciné camera by George Eastman in 1926 when he painted him and until the artist’s death in 1937 made an extra-ordinary record on film of his life and work.
[4] DLA103-0032
[5] The Daily Mail, 21 June, 1933
[6] DLA081-0183, op. cit.
[7] Noyer did reproductions for the Paris Salon, as well as for the French national museums.
[8] DLA081-0181, op. cit.
[9] See DLA026-0366 to DLA026-0368
[10] DLA059-0052, op. cit.
[11] The title Marqués del Mérito was created by Queen Isabel II of Spain on 23 August 1868 for José’s grandfather from Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz).
[12] 1910-1961 Buenos Aires, founding member of Friends of the MNBA Buenos Aires