8598

Johanna Laub, the Artist’s Mother 1914

Seated half-length, full-face and looking to the viewer, wearing a black dress with a cream frill on the cuff and down the bodice, with a black veil set back on her head and hanging down behind and over her shoulders, her right hand raised to her face

Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 70.2 cm (35 ½ x 27 ⅝ in.)

Inscribed lower left: Portrait of my dear mother / 1914. II. London /  P.A. de László

Laib L7330 (226) / C18 (19A):  Mrs. de Laszlo The artist's mother

Laib L15799 (175) / C20 (31A, 32 A, & 33 A): Photograph of the artist

NPG 1913-15 Album, p. 89

Private Collection

De László’s seventy-five year old mother came to London in early 1914 with his niece Ilonka [8600] [10219] and in February he made this final portrait of a beloved matriarch. On 15 February the family travelled together to Calais where they parted company, Johanna and Ilonka returning to Budapest, Philip and Lucy to take a holiday in the South of France. It was the last time he was to see her.

With the outbreak of war, the Austrians confiscated de László’s bank account in Vienna, from which he had been providing for his mother and family in Budapest. Fearing for his mother’s wellbeing, but at the risk of compromising his own position as a recently naturalized British subject, he arranged for letters and sums of money to be sent on to Hungary through friends in neutral Holland.

On 30 January 1915, Johanna died unexpectedly in Budapest after a short illness, while de László was in Bath, taking a cure. Johanna Laub, a strong and straightforward woman, was much loved by her children. She took a central role in their welfare and aspirations, especially as her husband, Adolf [4302], made their lives so difficult. Following his death in 1904, de László made sure that his mother and sister Rózsa [9848], were comfortably settled in one of the large flats of a six-storey apartment building the artist had bought in Budapest. Everyday, a hairdresser would come in, and de László had also arranged for a coach and horses to take them everyday for a ride in the fashionable part of the city. Johanna’s sudden death, at a time when war had separated de László from his family, was a serious blow to him. De László wrote about the present portrait: “In my studio there stands on my easel the last portrait of her, which I was so happy to paint last year. It is the very best I have ever painted. And so I am not alone.”^[1]

PROVENANCE:          

In the possession of the artist on his death

EXHIBITED:          

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June 1923, no. 36

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies by Philip A. de László, M.V.O., May-June, 1929, no. 9

•The Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, The Autumn Exhibition of Autumn Paintings, October 1929, no. 131

•Wildenstein & Co., London, Exhibition of Paintings by P. A de László, M.V.O.,  no. 35

LITERATURE:         

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, pp. 282, 299-310, ill. opp. p. 288

•European Herald, vol. III, no. 57, London, Friday 30 November 1934, p. 4, ill.

•All England Homefinder, 27th year, no. 212, January 1935, ill.

•Clifford, Derek, The Paintings of P. A. de Laszlo, London, 1969, monochrome ill. pl. 31

•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, ill. p. 14.

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 136, ill. 82

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 104

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 59

•DLA loose material, 30 March 1914, ill.

•DLA162-0409, Pesti Hírlap, 24 May 1929, p. 13

SdeL 2008