8752

Antoine XI-Agénor, 11th duc de Gramont 1902

Seated full-length to the left, looking to the right, in a carved wood armchair, wearing a black jacket over a red velvet waistcoat with a gold watch-chain, a hunting cape draped over his left leg and holding a hunting crop in his right hand, a Borzoi at his feet; all against a wooded landscape background

Oil on canvas, 218.5 x 128.3 cm (86 x 50 ½ in.)

Inscription, top left: 1902 / László F. E.

Sitters’ Book I, f. 59: Duc de Gramont

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 61: Duc de Gramont 28 Dec. 1902

Maison de Gramont Collection, Musée National et Domaine du Château de Pau

In 1902 de László was commissioned by the 11th duc de Gramont, to paint two monumental group portraits of his family for his home Château Vallière. A number of preparatory studies for the duc’s portrait were completed while de László worked on the portraits there: [110911] [110935][111850][112278][8753].

In 1926 the artist was asked to cut both group portraits down into individual portraits. The present picture was part of [112087], which included the sitter’s elder daughter Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre [4506], and Louis-René [8761], his second son by his second wife. The pendant group portrait [112088] depicted the 11th duc’s wife, Marguerite-Alexandrine de Rothschild [6550] and their two children, Armand [11801] and Corisande [6625]. For a full history of the group portraits, see [112087].

Antoine Alfred Agénor de Gramont, prince de Bidache, was born in Paris on 22 September 1851, son of the famous ambassador and Minister of State, Antoine X-Agénor de Gramont (1819-1880) – who was largely blamed for the 1870-1871 Prussian war and the insurrection in Paris – and his wealthy wife Emma-Mary MacKinnon (1811-1891), the daughter of William Alexander, Chief of the MacKinnon clan and British Member of Parliament. The de Gramont family, one of the oldest and most respected aristocratic families in France, was descended from King Henri IV.

An excellent mathematician, the duc finished first at the prestigious St-Cyr Academy before starting his career in the army, as a 2nd lieutenant in the 4th Hussars. He was described as a dashing and haughty young man, but with a father who was persona non grata in the aftermath of the Prussian war, meant that he was not perhaps such a good match when, on 21 April 1874, he married Isabelle, princesse de Beauvau-Craon (1852–1875), the daughter of prince Marc de Beauvau-Craon and Augustine d’Aubusson. In 1875, she gave birth to a daughter, (Antonia Corisande) Elisabeth [4506], but died of septicemia four days later. Three years later, while on leave from Melun, where he was stationed, Agénor met Marguerite-Alexandrine von Rothschild, the daughter of Carl Mayer von Rothschild and Louise von Rothschild, who immediately fell in love with him. Their wedding took place on 10 December 1878, despite the disapproval of her father, who disowned her. Together they had two sons, Antoine XII-Armand (born 1879), Louis-René de Gramont (born 1883), and a daughter, Corisande (born 1880). In 1880, Agénor succeeded his father as 11th duc de Gramont. Following the death of Carl Mayer von Rothschild in 1886, Marguerite-Alexandrine’s mother and sisters decided it was only fair that she should get her share of the inheritance, sixty million francs in gold. The Château de Vallière was subsequently built, and the duc and duchesse de Gramont entertained lavishly in their Parisian “hôtel particulier”. However, Agénor was widowed for the second time in 1905, after his wife died of pneumonia. His marriage to Marguerite-Alexandrine was a happy one, but he soon wished to remarry. With this in view, he was introduced to Princess Clelia Ruspoli, but instead his eye caught her seventeen-year-old daughter Maria [12810], whom he married on 3 August 1907. None of Agénor’s children, who all loved Marguerite-Alexandrine dearly, attended the wedding. There were two sons of the marriage, Gabriel (born 1908) and Gratien (born 1909). Unfortunately, if Agénor fell under the spell of Maria’s great beauty, he was not the only one and spent the rest of his life hounding her many admirers and lovers. He died in Paris on 30 January 1925.

PROVENANCE:         

By descent in the family;

Collection Maison de Gramont, Musée basque de Bayonne

EXHIBITED:         

•Paris, Salon de la société des artistes français, 1903, nº 1054 or 1055

•Musée National du Château de Pau, La Belle époque des Gramont au temps des équipages, 8 Octobre 1994- 31 janvier 1995, handlist nº 30

LITERATURE:        

•Schleinitz, Otto (von). Künstler Monographien Ph A.v. László, Bielefed and Leipzig, (Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing), 1913, pp. 67-9, ill. p. 50, pl. 57, in original form, prior to being cut down

•Rutter, Owen. Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 210

•Gramont, Antoine-Armand 12th duc (de). Unpublished Memoirs, p. 131

•Clermont-Tonnerre, Elisabeth (de), Mémoires : Au temps des équipages, Les Cahiers verts, Grasset, 1928

•Chaleyssin, Patrick. La Peinture mondaine de 1870 à 1960, Editions Celia, 1993, ill. p. 32, pl. 56

•Arsène, Alexandre. ‘Société des Artistes français, Salon de 1903’, in Figaro Illustré, nº 159, June 1903, p. 19

•Rapazzini, Francesco. Elisabeth de Gramont avant-gardiste, collection Vies de Femmes, Fayard, Paris, 2004, pp. 112-20

László, Lucy de, 1902-1911 diary, private collection, 27 December 1902 entry, pp. 40-41

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 81, ill. 42

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, pp. 61, 63, 66

CC  2008