9165

The Orange Seller, Rome 1923

Oil on panel, 31.75 x 39.4 cm (12 ½ x 15 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower right, recto: de László 1923 / Rome

Laib L14409(433) / C31(9)  

Private Collection

De László and Lucy travelled to Algeria in early 1923, their first holiday since the end of the First World War and the artist’s internment. The landscape reinvigorated his love of painting for pleasure and he wrote in his diary: “My heart rejoiced to be able to preserve in colour something of that splendour. I feel regretful that I have not painted more landscape in the past...I am longing to paint to my heart’s desire in the open air.”^[1] 

Benito Mussolini [6383] was persuaded to sit for his portrait when the artist stopped in Rome on his return to England. De László also took the opportunity to paint studies of people and places that caught his eye, including the gardens of the Villa Borghese [11649] and the present picture. In an interview with the art historian Adrian Bury for Apollo magazine, published ten years later, he recalled: “It was on the occasion when I was doing the portrait of Signor Mussolini, and I asked the Duce if he would lend me two guards that I might work in comparative peace at a subject in the streets of Rome that interested me. He responded with enthusiasm, but before I began to make this sketch I approached the old fruit seller and offered to compensate her for the interruption of her business. When she heard that I had just come from the Palazzo Chigi, where I had been painting Signor Mussolini, she declined, with that delicacy characteristic of the Roman, to confuse honour with money. She would not take a single lira. A number of people observed me from behind the authority of the guards. Within an hour the picture was complete. You can imagine how happy I was when the fruit seller, the guards and the onlookers rewarded me with a chorus of bravos. It was a delightful experience.”^[2] 

The picture remained in the artist’s personal collection and was included in his last exhibition at the Wildenstein Gallery, New Bond Street, which opened the day after de László’s death 22 November 1937.

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death;

Patrick de Laszlo, his fourth son

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923, no. 72

•Hotel Jean Charpentier, Paris, Exposition P. A. de László, June 1931, no. 88

•Wildenstein & Co., Ltd., London, Exhibition of Paintings by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., November-December 1937, no. 55

•Christie’s, King Street, London, A Brush with Grandeur, 6-22 January 2004, no. 97, ill.

•BADA Art & Antiques Fair, London, Philip de László: 150th Anniversary Exhibition, 2019, no. 9

LITERATURE:

•Bury, Adrian, “The Art of Philip de László: An Appreciation,” Apollo, July 1933, pp. 16-22

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1939, p. 348

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P.A. de Laszlo, London, 1969, ill. front jacket cover and p. 25, pl. V

•Field, Katherine, Philip Alexius de László; 150th Anniversary Exhibition, de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 43, ill. pp. 42, 46

KF 2019