6978

Sculpture

Baron Bruno Schröder 1917

Plaster bust, 45.5 x 76 x 30.5 cm (18 x 30 x 12 in.)

Inscribed verso: de László 

Sitters’ Book II, f. 10: Bruno Schröder - April 1917.

Private Collection

This is one of only three known portrait busts by de László, the other two being of his wife Lucy (1930) [3382] and his friend the art critic, Alfred Lys Baldry (1933) [3583]. This is thought to be his second attempt at sculpture.^[1] De László made the original plaster version at the Schröders’ home, Dell Park, while working on his second three-quarter length portrait of Baron Bruno [6972] in the spring of 1917. A photograph shows de László working on the plaster model which was later used, in 1920, to cast the bust in bronze by E.J. Parlanti in London [7028].

Baroness Schröder called the bust “a wonderful tour de force if you consider that Laszlo is not a sculptor. It is especially good in profile, and the great Swedish sculptor Milles^[2] once looked at it and said it was rather good, but that it ought to be lit from the top so that the eyes look more natural and not so ferocious.”^[3]

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [6945].

LITERATURE:        

•Schröder, Baroness Emma von, Description of Dell Park, 1934-7, unpublished

CWS 2008