7886

UNTRACED

Emir Feisal Ibn Hussein 1920

Half-length to the right, looking almost full face to the viewer, wearing a bisht (a flowing black cloak trimmed with gold) over a white high-necked tunic, a white ghutra (headdress), and the gold iqal (headcord) of the Hashemite dynasty, a gold ceremonial dagger buckled to his waist, his right hand on his hip

Oil [support and dimensions unknown]

Indistinctly inscribed lower right: de László / 1920. XII / LONDON 

Laib L18165 (238) / C30 (7): Unidentified man King? [sic]

NPG Album 1917-1921, p. 125

Sitters’ Book II, f. 20: [Signed in arabic script] / [in the artist’s hand: H.M. the King of the Irak [sic] with the signature of King Feisal’s secretary G. Haddad, below, dated 25 December 1920]

De László painted Emir Feisal while he was in exile in London. Having been dethroned as King of Syria at the end of July 1920, he was not yet King of Iraq, since he only ascended the throne in the summer of 1921. The exact circumstances of this commission remain unknown, but a letter from the artist, written after Feisal’s death in 1933, suggests that it was the Emir who personally commissioned his portrait: “At the time when King Feisal lived in London in 1920 […] I did a portrait of him for himself.”^[1]

According to de László’s appointment books for 1920 and 1921, Feisal first visited his studio on 22 December 1920, and it seems the first sitting took place on Christmas day. Lucy de László recorded in her own diary: “We all except Henry^[2] +P. went to Allan St. Church - Henry went to hear Canon Carnegie, & P. painted Amir Faisul [sic].”^[3] Further sittings took place in December on Sunday 26th, Monday 27th, and in the mornings of 29th and 30th, from 10.30. On 4 January he painted him in the afternoon, and on 6th, de László recorded: “2 15 finished Feisul [sic].”^[4] As well as the present portrait, the artist painted a smaller study-portrait of Feisal for de László’s own pleasure [7888].  Because the present worked is dated December 1920, it is safe to assume that five sittings were dedicated to its completion, which is usually what de László allowed for a half-length portrait, whilst in January 1921, Feisal probably sat for his study portrait in two sittings.

The artist’s studio photographer, Paul Laib, produced plates of both portraits, on which the present picture appears in a finished state, but lacking Feisal’s right hand resting on his hip. It was probably added by de László at a later stage, either on his own initiative, or at Feisal’s request. In 1921, a book published by The Studio,^[5] reproduced the portrait in colour and in its present state.

Feisal ibn Hussein was born on 20 May 1886 at Ta’if, Hejaz, the third of three sons of Hussein ibn Ali (1853-1931), and his wife Abdliya bint Abdullah (d. 1886), who died shortly after Feisal’s birth. Both his parents were sharifs, and descended from Emir Hashem, the great-grandfather of the prophet Mohammed. To improve the child’s frail constitution, he was sent to live with the Bedouin, and he later received instruction from a private tutor of the military academy in Constantinople, where his father was exiled from 1898 to 1908, following a dispute with the grand sharif of Mecca. In 1904, he married his first cousin Huzaima bint Nasser (c. 1884-1935), with whom he had three daughters, Azza (born 1906), Rajha (born 1907), Raifa (born 1910), and a son, Ghazi (born 1912). In 1908, Feisal’s father became grand sharif of Mecca and his family returned to Hejaz. The following year, Feisal was appointed a deputy in the new Ottoman parliament, thus travelling frequently between Mecca and Constantinople.

During the First World War, Feisal played an important part alongside Lawrence of Arabia in the Middle East in Britain’s campaign against the Ottoman Empire, taking the role of military leader of the Arab revolt of 1916-1918, whilst his brother Abdullah negotiated on behalf of their father. Although not present at the capture of Aqabah in July 1917, Feisal helped lead the forces that secured Damascus, of which General Allenby gave him administrative control, alongside Beirut and Aleppo. Despite the likelihood of his becoming King of Syria, the French objected to this, as they had been promised the geographical areas in question by Britain in the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. Feisal was present to negotiate at the Paris peace conference in 1919, but his position in Syria appeared more and more uncertain. In March 1920, a congress of Arab notables in Damascus proclaimed him King of Syria, but the French and the British, at the San Remo conference, divided the Middle East into League of Nations mandates, which resulted in France acquiring Lebanon and Syria. Feisal was sent into exile, but he retained good relations with some British officials such as Gertrude Bell.

In March 1921, at the Cairo conference, he was formally offered Iraq’s throne by the new colonial secretary, Winston Churchill. He accepted, thus relinquishing any hopes for Greater Syria. The mixed reception he received in Baghdad in June 1921 forced him to distance himself from his British advisers, who were entrusted by the League of Nations with the task of preparing Iraq for independence. An Anglo-Iraqi treaty was signed in October 1922, and after a trying process which came to a head with a British ultimatum, the treaty was ratified by Britain in June 1924. Although King Feisal had executive powers, the constitution drafted by Edgar Bonham-Carter ensured that resident British advisers could exert pressure on him. Under the impression that the King was under the sway of the urban Sunnis, the rural Shi’a and ethnic minorities generated frequent unrest, only kept under control by RAF bombings. After long negotiations, and two treaty revisions in 1926 and 1930 that were steps towards independence, in 1929, Britain eventually gave unconditional support to Iraq’s admission to the League of Nations in 1932.

Affected by these repeated negotiations and strained relationships with his brother, and worried over Iraq’s divided population, Feisal’s health started to fail. It deteriorated further after the Iraqi army killed 300 Assyrians at Simel in Mosul in August 1933, an act that was condemned internationally. At the beginning of September, King Feisal was flown to Switzerland for emergency treatment, but he died a few days later in Bern, on 7 September 1933, aged forty-seven. He was buried in the royal mausoleum in Baghdad and was succeeded by his son Ghazi.

SOURCE: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

EXHIBITED:

•The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, Paintings by Philip A. de László, 26 February-20 March, 1921, no. 5

•M. Knoedler and Co., New York. Paintings by Philip A. de László, 4-16 April 1921, no. 27

•Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Forty-Ninth Exhibition of Modern Art, 24 September-10 December 1921, no. 986

LITERATURE:

•Baldry, Alfred Lys, Modern Painting II. The Work of P.A. de Laszlo, M.V.O., The Studio Limited, London, 1921, ill.

•Erskine, Mrs Steuart (Beatrice), Faisal King of Iraq: An Authorised and Authentic Study, Hutchinson & Co. Limited, London, 1933, ill. frontispiece

•The Illustrated London News, 8 July 1933, p. 51, ill.

•László, Lucy de, 1920 diary, private collection

•László, Philip de, 1920 appointment book, private collection

•László, Philip de, 1921 appointment book, private collection

•DLA026-0327, letter from the László to Beatrice Erskine, 21 November 1933

•DLA 1933 parcel, Compilation of Pesti Hírlap supplements, ill.

•DLA162-0133, Pesti Hírlap, 9 February 1938, p. 5

CC 2011