11319

Bohuslav Count Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin 1895

Seated three-quarter length slightly to the right, full face and looking to the viewer, wearing evening dress with decorations: around his neck the red eagle and green collar of the Tyrolean Nobleman, “Abzeichen der Tiroler Adelsmatrikel,” the sash and, on his chest, (from top, clockwise) the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold; the star of a Knight (1st Class) of the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown; the star of the Grand Cross of the Franz Joseph Order and an unidentified medal, his right hand resting on his right thigh, his left elbow resting on the back of the chair

Oil on canvas, 108.7 x 89.4 cm (42 ¾ x 35 ¼ in.)

Inscribed upper right: BOLESLAUS COMES A / CHOTEK DE CHOTKOVA / ET VOGNIN, SACR. IMP / ET. APOST. MAJ. CONC. INT / ET. INV. EXCR. ET. MIN. PLEN / DRESDAE.ID.MAJI / MDCCCXCV 

Inscribed lower right: PHILIPPUS LÁSZLÓ PINXIT 

Museum und Kunstsammlung, Glauchau, Germany

In March 1895 de László was staying at the King of Saxony’s palace in Dresden as he had been commissioned to paint a copy of the only authentic portrait of the great Hungarian national hero Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II by Ádám Mányoki [6724], which was hanging in the King’s collection there. During his stay the artist also accepted other commissions, such as the portrait of Crown Princess Luise of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria, a painting which remains untraced [111454].

It was Count Bohuslav Chotek, Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the Court of Saxony, who introduced the artist to Dresden’s notability, as de László wrote in a letter to his sister Szerena.^[1] He hoped to be asked to paint the envoy, thus prolonging his stay in Dresden. He was successful and in May the portrait of Count Chotek was executed in the Zwinger, the residence of the Dresden Court, as the artist described in a letter dated 9 May to his friend and patron Elek Lippich. He continued: “It is wonderful! Count Chotek comes there – the whole town is already talking about the picture – and I constantly have visitors from the Court coming to my studio. On the 17th there will be a big soirée at the Count's, where apart from the King, the whole Court will be present. The mother of the German Emperor^[2] will be there, he [Count Chotek] wants to introduce me […] The old Count has become very fond of me, he always takes me in his carriage for a walk in the evenings.”^[3]

The artist had found a great friend in Bohuslav Chotek and considered his portrait  one of his best pictures.^[4] From June on it was exhibited at the Dresden Kunstsalon where “the whole Court […] and many distinguished guests” saw it.^[5] De László was “looking forward to what the papers would write”^[6] and it seems that art critics admired and praised the portrait but, according to the Count “found the background too dark and remarked that there is a tangle around my head in a different colour.”^[7] When the artist showed the painting again – together with the portraits of Ferdinand of Bulgaria [3937] and his consort Maria Luisa [3715] – at the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest in 1896, he was awarded the Large Bronze Medal.^[8] 

As a token of gratitude the artist received a silver cigarette case with a Hungarian inscription from the Count and the cigarettes from the sitter’s fifth daughter Countess Octavie “Toto” von Schönburg-Glauchau, “because good Mr Philip László also must have a little souvenir from me, as he gave us – your children – the pleasure to paint such an artistic and fabulously similar life-size portrait in oil of you.”^[9] 

After the death of the Count in 1896, the painting came into the possession of Octavie, who expressed a special interest in this “great and beautiful portrait of my father… as I often was present when you painted him.”^[10] Anna Elisabeth Chotek, neé von Künell auf Nedamow (1871–1922), wife of Count Chotek’s only son Wolfgang, wrote to the artist in May 1898 to request a copy of the portrait for his birthday as he had always loved the picture of his father.^[11] De László must not have had time to do this himself and it was made by Maternus Esser. It is now in the collection at Konopiště Castle, near Prague. Two further copies by unknown artists have also been identified, one at Děčin Castle [112186] and another in a private collection [112552].

There were also plans to paint other members of the family. In a letter to de László Count Chotek mentioned the “beautiful” and “ideal study-head” of his 3-year old grandson Count Hermann Nostitz-Rieneck, as well as his daughter Maria Antonia ‘Antoinette’ zu Wuthenau-Hohenthurm, who would have loved to be portrayed by the artist.^[12] It is possible that the portrait of a so far unidentified sitter inscribed “Antonia” and painted in 1896 [110634], is the untraced portrait of Maria Antonia. This has yet to be verified.

In a letter written in Madrid to his daughter Octavie dated 3 April 1910 de László expressed his interest in painting her husband Count Joachim Schönburg-Glauchau : “It would now be my pleasure to be allowed to paint a portrait of His Lordship the Count – and now I have to answer the question of the fee. A chest-high portrait would be M. 7,000, a knee-high one M. 10,000. With my family of 4 boys – golden haired like their English mother – (unfortunately we have lost our only daughter)^[13] I will spend this summer at the Staremberger Lake in Bayern-Tutzing – we will stay there from July 6 to the end of September. If so desired I could arrange to possibly come from there to Schloss Glauchau.”^[14] So far as it is known, de László never did go to Glauchau to carry out this commission.

Count Chotek was born in Prague on 4 July 1829, the son of Karl Count Chotek von Chotkowa und Wognin at Zahorzan and Gross-Priesen and Ciwitz (1783–1868), R & I Treasurer and Privy Councillor, last High Burgrave of Bohemia, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and his wife Marie, née Countess Berchtold, Royal and Imperial Chambermaid, Starcross Dame (1794–1878). The Choteks were descended from an ancient Bohemian line of Counts of the Empire, many of which had held high offices in the civil service. Bohuslav Chotek’s father, who was governor of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, encouraged his son to enter the diplomatic service after an internship at the Austrian embassy in Dresden.^[15] 

On 30 October 1859 Bohuslav married Wilhelmine, née Countess Kinsky^[16] at Adler-Kosteletz. They had eight children, one son and seven daughters: Wolfgang (born 1860), Sidonie ‘Zdenka’ (born 1861), Marie ‘Rieschel’ (born 1863), Karoline ‘Cara’ (born 1865), Sophie ‘Sopherl’ (born 1868),^[17] Octavie ‘Toto’ (born 1873), Maria Antonia ‘Antoinette’ (born 1874),^[18] and Henriette (born 1880). Within the family Count Chotek was called ‘Papa Bohu.’ In 1854 he was made Royal & Imperial Treasurer and in 1869 Royal & Imperial Privy Councillor. He was also a Special Envoy and Authorized Minister and lifetime Member of the Upper Chamber of the Austrian Parliament and Governor of the province of Bohemia under Hohenwart.^[19] In 1867 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Imperial Austrian Order of Franz-Joseph Order, in 1878 the Order of the Iron Crown and in 1881 the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold.

His distinguished and varied diplomatic career took him to Stuttgart, Berlin, London, St. Petersburg, Dresden, Prague, Madrid and Brussels, amongst many other important postings. One of his most delicate tasks was a diplomatic mission at the Belgian court. Emperor Franz Joseph had ordered Chotek to find out whether Princess Stephanie of Belgium would be willing to marry the Austrian heir to the throne, Crown Prince Rudolf. Catholic princesses from reigning houses were rare and Rudolf was quite particular. Chotek managed to arrange a meeting of the presumptive bride and groom which took place on 5 March 1880 and which guaranteed both of them the option to withdraw (in case of mutual disapproval). Only three days later, on 8 March, the engagement was announced in Austrian and Belgian papers.^[20] The mission was successful but the marriage was not.^[21] Although Count Chotek was not to blame, his career came to a halt. In 1888 he was appointed Austro-Hungarian ambassador in Dresden, a position with no political significance, which he held until 1895.^[22] 

When Count Bohuslaw Chotek died at Görlitz on 11 October 1896 he was almost completely impoverished, his fortune having been consumed in his 30 years of diplomatic service.  

PROVENANCE:

Countess Octavie Schönburg-Glauchau, daughter of the sitter, until 1945

EXHIBITED:

•Kunstsalon Lichtenberg, Victoriahaus, Dresden, 1895

•Hungarian Fine Art Society, Budapest, Téli kiállítás [Winter Exhibition], 1895–96, no. 81

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Millennium Exhibition, 1896, no. 667

•Kunstsalon Schneider, Frankfurt, winter 1896–97

•Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Annual exhibition, 1897, no. 214

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, February 1898

LITERATURE:        

•Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Berlin, 16 February 1898

•Egy magyar művész sikerei Berlinben [The Success of a Hungarian Artist in Berlin], Budapesti Napló, Budapest, 8 March 1898

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, n° 106, Ph. A. von Lázsló, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1913, p. 34, and ill. p. 21, pl. 24

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, London 1939, pp. 150,153, 158

•Rogasch, Wilfried, Schlösser & Gärten in Böhmen und Mähren, Könemann, Köln 2001, p. 300

•Bestenreiner, Erika, Franz Ferdinand und Sophie von Hohenberg. Verbotene Liebe am Kaiserhof, Piper, München & Zürich 2004

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, pp. 44-45        

•NSzL150-0021, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 9 May 1895

•NSzL150-0022, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 9 June 1895

•DLA034-0017, letter from Bohuslav Chotek to de László, 9 September 1895

•DLA091-0023, German press cutting, 24 November 1895

•DLA091-0109, German press cutting, Exhibition Schneider’scher Kunstsalon, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA091-0121, German press cutting, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA091-0125, German press cutting, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA091-0037, Dresdener Zeitung, [undated, page unknown]

•DLA043-0055, letter from de László to Szerena Kremer, 28 April 1895

•DLA090-0063, Prém, József, “Magyar arckép- és genre-festők” [Hungarian Portrait and Genre Painters], Magyarország [date and page unknown]

•DLA162-0459, Kézdi-Kovács, László, “Téli műtárlat” [Winter Exhibition], Pesti Hírlap, 27 November 1895, p. 1

•DLA140-0024, Új Idők, 2 February 1896, p. 129, ill.

•NSzL150-0037, letter from Elek Lippich to de László, 22 October 1896

•NSzL150-0038, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 28 October 1896

•DLA060-0003, letter from Octavie Schönburg-Glauchau to de László, 17 November 1896

•DLA091-0127, press cutting, Jahresausstellung im Wiener Künstlerhaus, 23 March 1897 [page unknown]

•DLA031-0061, letter from Countess Sara Henckel von Donnersmark to de László, 30 June 1897

•DLA060-0002, letter from Octavie Schönburg-Glauchau to de László, 24 February 1898

•DLA060-0007, letter from Countess Anna Elisabeth Chotek to de László, 12 May 1898

•DLA060-0004, letter from Octavie Schönburg-Glauchau to de László, 21 December 1898

•DLA140-0115, Dr Kovács, Jenő, “László Fülöp”, Új Idők, Vol. 7, issue 9, Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 24 February 1901, p. 189, ill.

•DLA140-0212, Térey, Dr. Gabriel von, “A Hungarian Portrait Painter: Philip de László,” The Studio, vol. 40, no. 170, May 1907, p. 260

•DLA140-0202, The American Review of Reviews, May 1908, p. 550

ATG 2012