3360

Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg 1899

Standing three-quarter length to the left and full-face to the viewer, wearing a dark suit, wing collar, a blue and red spotted cravat with a pearl tie pin and a frock coat, holding a pair of gloves and top hat in his right hand, his left hand resting on his hip with gold rings on his little finger and a gold bracelet round his wrist, against a dark background, a tapestry visible on the left depicting a hunter or soldier

Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm (63 x 39 ⅜ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László F.E. / 1899 VII

Inscribed upper left: MAXIMILIANUS EGONUS / PRINCEPS DE FUERSTENBERG

Sitters’ Book I, f. 3: Max Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg März 99

Sitters’ Book I, f. 6: In Abwesenheit des Meisters 14 / 4 99 besuchten folgende hohe Gäste die Stätte stiller Arbeit das Heiligtum der Kunst und besahen die Werke welche “sehr gut in der Farbe sind.”^[1] Max Egon

Sitters’ Book I, f. 28: Max Egon Fst zu Fürstenberg / 24/7 99

Fürstenbergische Sammlungen, Schloss Weitra, Austria

This portrait was begun in Vienna in the spring of 1899 at the Hotel Imperial where Max Egon II Fürst zu Fürstenberg “had an excellent atelier set up with full studio lighting” for the artist.^[2] The sitter signed the Sitters’ Book in March, which suggests that it was begun then. It is one of three the artist was working on at this time: a pendant three-quarter length of the Fürst’s wife Irma [5297] and a half-length of their eight-year-old son Hereditary Prince Karl Egon [5300]. Only the half-length was completed before the Fürstenbergs departed for their country estate Schloss Donaueschingen in Germany on 17 April and the artist visited them there at the end of July to finish the present portrait and its pendant.^[3] He also painted the Fürstin in historical dress [112072], their daughter Leontine [3359] and a half-length portrait of the sitter in the uniform of the Garde du Corps [5291]. For the present picture he received a fee of 6000 Gulden.^[4] 

A reduced version [112118] of similar composition and dress to the finished picture was kept by de László until his death. The face is finished to a degree that is unusual for the artist’s preparatory works and suggests he intended to keep it as a souvenir of his time spent with the family. The artist also made a head and shoulders preparatory oil study [5294] that he gave to Max Egon. In a letter to his mentor Elek Lippich, dated 12 April, the artist included a small sketch of the present portrait [112951] and described its progress: “the life-size, three-quarter length portrait of the Count is also well ahead, his hand on his hip, wearing a wide black coat, holding a cylinder and gloves.”^[5]

De László met the Fürstenbergs through his friendship with Prince Max Ratibor [10502]; his mother Princess Amélie, née Fürstenberg, was Max Egon’s aunt. Fürstin Irma met de László at the Princess’s funeral in January 1899 on the Ratibor estate at Rauden, where the artist was staying as a guest. The sitter and artist became close friends and de László wrote in his memoirs: “[He] was one of the most generous and intelligent men I have ever met.  Besides being a hereditary peer in Austria and Germany, in his dual citizenship he also held the highest orders that the two countries could bestow; the Golden Fleece and the Black Eagle. In both countries he belonged to the Emperor's Guard and in Germany he had also the exclusive position of being the Lord Marshal.”^[6] 

Max Egon zu Fürstenberg was born 13 October 1863 at Schloss Lana bei Pürglitz in Bohemia (now Lány / Křivoklát, Czech Republic), the eldest son of Maximilian-Egon, Fürst zu Fürstenberg (1822-1873) head of the secondary Bohemian line of the family and his wife, Leontine Countess von Khevenhüller-Metsch (1843-1914). His father died shortly before his tenth birthday and two years later his mother married her brother-in-law, Emil Egon (1825-1899).

He married Irma, Countess von Schönborn-Buchheim (1867-1948), 19 June 1899 in Vienna. They had five children: Karl Egon (born 1891), Leontine (born 1892), Anna (born 1894), Maximilian Egon (born 1896) and Friedrich Eduard (born 1896).  After the death of his childless cousin Karl Egon IV in 1896 he inherited the titles and property of the senior Swabian branch of the family. He was a considerable patron of the arts and sciences and re-established the musical tradition at Donaueschingen.

Max Egon was a close friend of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who visited Schloss Donaueschingen in April 1900. He wrote his appreciation: “As always you have once again understood how to create a cosiness which I can hardly find elsewhere. You possess the talent to lend a refreshing peace to the convivial atmosphere around you, even with all the elegance and all the princely comfort.”^[7] Wilhelm II particularly appreciated Max Egon’s optimism and good sense of humour after the retirement of his closest friend and confidant Fürst Philipp zu Eulenburg in 1908. The sitter used his influence politically on behalf of Austria, which he put first in his loyalties over Germany.^[8] He also did his best to secure an Imperial commission for de László, who must have shown impatience, as Max Egon wrote in September 1899 that, “unfortunately I cannot say anything at present. It is not as easy as it may appear.”^[9] The artist did not have long to wait and painted the Empress Auguste Victoria [4960] and her daughter Princess Victoria Luise [5090] in November. He painted two study portraits of the Emperor in 1908 [4789] [4958] and a full-length equestrian portrait, completed in 1911 [4952].

Max Egon died at the family castle of Heiligenberg overlooking Lake Constance on 11 August 1941.

Other members of the Fürstenberg family painted by de László are: the sitter’s brother Karl Emil [111421] in 1911, his wife May [5303] in 1906 and comtesse Jean de Castellane [3770] in 1899. She was the widow of Max Egon’s cousin Karl Egon IV and de László’s first commission in France. The present portrait, the pendant of the Fürstin and that of their son now form part of the collection at Schloss Weitra, Austria.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the sitter’s family

EXHIBITED:

•Conversationshaus, Baden Baden, Collectiv Portrait Ausstellung, August-September 1899, no. 3 

•Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 1899^[10]

•Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Künstlerhaus Annual Exhibition, May-June 1900, no. 346

•Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungarian Fine Art Society, Tavaszi kiállítás [Spring Exhibition], 1900, no. 126  

•Galerie Schulte, Berlin, 1900

•Schloss Weitra, Die Fürstenberger – 800 Jahre Herrschaft und Kultur in Mitteleuropa, Niederösterreichische Landesausstellung, 1994, no. VI /30b

LITERATURE:

•Gábor de Térey, ‘Feuilleton. The Spring Exhibition in the Künstlerhaus’, Pester Lloyd, 10 April 1900

•Vasárnapi Újság, vol. 48, issue 28, Franklin-Társulat, Budapest, 14 July 1901, pp. 448-449

•Schleinitz, Otto von, Künstler Monographien, n° 106, Ph A. von László, Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1913, pp. 52-56, ill. pl. 42

•Rutter, Owen, Portrait of a Painter, 1939, London, pp. 175, 183

•Schloss Weitra, Die Fürstenberger – 800 Jahre Herrschaft und Kultur in Mitteleuropa, Ueberreuter, Korneuburg, 1994, cat. no. VI / 30b

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Philip de László. His Life and Art, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010, p. 58

•Field, Katherine ed., Transcribed by Susan de Laszlo, The Diaries of Lucy de László Volume I: (1890-1913), de Laszlo Archive Trust, 2019, p. 50

•Field, Katherine ed., Gábor Bellák and Beáta Somfalvi, Philip de László (1869-1937); "I am an Artist of the World", Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, 2019, p. 9

•NSzL150-0071, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 21 March 1899

•NSzL150-0072, letter from de László to Elek Lippich, 12 April 1899

•NSzL150-0073, letter from de László to Elek  Lippich, 22 April 1899

•NSzL150-0081, letter from de László to Elek  Lippich, 13 July 1899

•NSzL150-0082, letter from de László to Elek  Lippich, 9 August 1899

•NSzL150-0084 German press cutting, August 1899

•NSzL150-0086, letter from de László to Elek  Lippich, 16 September 1899

•DLA091-0012, German press cutting, 24 October 1899

•DLA090-0131, German press cutting, 15 August 1899

•DLA090-0193, “Kunstausstellung im Conversationshaus”, German press cutting, [undated, presumably 1899]  

•DLA162-0118, Pesti Hírlap, 8 April 1900, p. 7

•DLA162-0161, Pesti Hírlap, 10 May 1900, p. 5

CWS & ATG 2018