110706

Study portrait

Madame Theodorus van Riemsdijk-Loudon, née Adriana Jacqueline Marie van Riemsdijk 1908

Half-length to the left, full face to the viewer, wearing a brown fur stole over a costume with a blue scarf tied at the neck, a ring on her left hand and her hair up in a chignon

Oil on board, 74 x 60 cm (29 ⅛ x 23 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed lower left: P.A. László 1908 II

Sitters’ Book I, f. 79: Adrienne van Riemsdyk- / Loudon / Haag. Febr. 1908

Archive of North Holland, The Netherlands

Adriana’s portrait was painted in February 1908. The portrait of her husband Theodorus [10774], intended as a pendant to that of his wife, was painted in March the following year while de László was in Holland painting the sitter’s brother Hugo Loudon^[1] and their mother Louise [6227]  & [6238]. At the same time de László made a portrait of the Van Riemsdijk’s daughter Daisy^[2] [110584]. All except the last mentioned are fine examples of de László’s portrait studies, probably painted in one or two sittings. Daisy’s portrait (which is untraced) appears to be slightly more formal.

After the outbreak of war in 1914, it was Adriana van Riemsdijk, whose brother John Loudon [6241] was the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, who agreed to act as intermediary for de László’s correspondence with his family in Hungary and, until his account was frozen, with his bankers in Vienna.

Later, to avoid increasing delays in delivery, Adriana suggested that the letters should be sent through the Dutch Minister in London himself, Jonkheer René de Marees van Swinderen, for which her brother gave his approval. This frequent exchange of letters between de László and the Netherlands, however, had not escaped the notice of the British police. His letters were being opened in transit and translated, hence the delays, and de László received several visits from officials who questioned him about his contacts with Hungary. In June 1917 he was forbidden to send any more money to his family and he had to ask Adriana van Riemsdijk not to make further use of the diplomatic bag on his behalf. He thus hoped that he would from then on be left in peace. Nonetheless on 17 July he was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of being an enemy alien.

Adriana van Riemsdijk remained one of de László’s most loyal friends, travelling especially to London to defend him and to vouch for his good character when the case considering the revocation of his British naturalization was heard in June 1919.^[3] He was totally exonerated.

The sitter was born in Batavia on 5 December 1856, one of the seven children of  James Loudon and His wife Louise Wilhelmine Françoise Felicité de Stuers. She married Jonkheer Theodorus Helenus Franciscus van Riemsdijk (1848-1923) on 6 March 1884, with whom she had a son and a daughter, Daisy. She died in Thetford, Norfolk, on 19 October 1919.

EXHIBITED:

•Museum Van Loon Amsterdam De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006, n° 16    

LITERATURE:

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 334-339

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.), De László in

Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, pp.

8, 50, 54, 56, 61, 63, 69, 70, 72, ill. n° 16

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 106, ill. 62

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 82

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, pp. 116, 187

CWS 2008