4862

Madame Tibor de Scitovszky, née Hanno Hódosi 1927

Half-length to the right, full face to the viewer, wearing a dark blue patterned wrap over a gold coloured evening gown, her left hand to her breast and holding a string of pearls in her right hand

Oil on canvas, 99.1 x 73.7 cm (39 x 29 in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / Paris / 1927  X

Sitter’s Book II., opp. f. 57: Scitovszky Tiborné / Paris X. 29. 927.-

Private Collection

De László painted pendant portraits of Madame Scitovszky and her husband Tibor de Scitovszky [4859] in Paris, October 1927. The artist spent much time in the city fulfilling commissions and on this occasion he was returning to London from Budapest where he painted many importrant Hungarians including: Regent Horthy [5684]; Madame Horthy [10456]; Prime Minister, Count István Bethlen [2487] and his wife [10458] and the commander of the Royal Bodyguard, Major Máté-Törék [10498].

Hanna Hódosi was born on 30 October 1886, the daughter of Sándor Hódosi and his wife Katalin Vértesi Weisz. She married Tibor de Scitovszky and they had one son (born 1910), who became a distinguished economist. Madame de Scitovszky was described in his memoirs as a woman with a strong personality and imposing presence.

She and her husband built a villa in the Buda hills in 1925 and she took a great interest in its interior design, importing antique furniture from France and 18th-century ceramic tiled stoves from Austria. When her husband became Minister for Foreign Affairs she hosted magnificent dinner parties and resplendent receptions for the diplomatic corps and visiting statesmen in their new home. The de Lászlós were invited for dinner with them in 1935 and the artist described the visit in his diary, see [4859].

In 1938 when the 34th Eucharistic World Congress was held in Budapest, the Regent asked Mme de Scitovszky to serve as official hostess, which she did very successfully. In 1946 she and her husband went to visit their son in the United States and they did not return to Hungary. The sitter died on 10 January 1977.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family;

Woodside Priory School, California;

Private collection;

Sold Sotheby’s New York, 26 May 1993, lot 293 as a pair with her husband;

Private collection;

Sold Christie’s, New York, 30 April 2019, lot 83

EXHIBITED:

•Budapest, Országos Magyar Képzőművészeti Társulat [Hungarian Fine Art Society] Téli Kiállítás (Winter Exhibition), December 1927 - February 1928, cat. no.72

•Budapest, Nemzeti Szalon Jubileumi Kiállítás  [National Salon Jubilee Exhibition], 5-20 October 1935.

LITERATURE:

•Az Est, 28 November 1927

•Pesti Napló, Vasárnap, 18 December 1927, ill.

•Pester Lloyd, 18 December 1927

•Magyarság, 18 December 1927

•Scitovszky, Tibor, The Memoirs of a Proud Hungarian. Hungarian Quarterly, 1997

•Verrasztó, Gábor, Budai Polgár, A második kerület lapja [Citizen of Buda. The newspaper of the second district], online, 20 May 2016

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, p. 283

•DLA030-0011, letters from Tibor de Scitovszky to de László10 December 1927 and 19 August 1928

•DLA043-0027, letter from Mme. Dezső Seemann to de László, 19 December 1927

•DLA043-0017, letter from Marczell László to de László, 20 December 1927

•DLA030-0012, letter from Gyula Máté-Törék to de László, 7 February 1928

•DLA035-0118, letter from Tibor de Scitovszky to de László, 9 March 1934

•DLA162-0085, Kézdi-Kovács, László, “Arcképfestészet. Reprezentatív kiállítás a Nemzeti Szalonban” [Portrait Painting. Representative Exhibition at the National Salon], Pesti Hírlap, 5 October 1935, p. 8

•László, Lucy de, 1927 diary, private collection, 24 October entry

•DLA162-0288, Pesti Hírlap, 18 December 1927, p. 7  

•László, Philip de, 1933 diary, private collection, 15 November entry

•László, Philip de, 1935 diary, private collection, 14 March entry

•László, Philip de, June to November 1935 diary, private collection, 14 October entry

•László, Philip de, June to November diary, private collection, 24 October entry

BS & Pd’O 2019