9939

UNTRACED

Madame Jacques Patrick Hennessy, comtesse Marguerite Marie de Mun 1922

Reclining full-length in an evening dress, on a sofa with her elbow resting on a table with a vase of arum lilies to the left, a patterned carpet on the floor and an oval mirror on the wall behind

Oil on canvas, [dimensions unknown]

Inscribed lower right: de László / Paris 1922   

Laib L11123 (760) / C11 (35): Madame Handesay [sic.]

NPG 1923 Album, p. 16 where labelled:  Mrs. Leo d'Erlanger 

Sitters’ Book II, f. 32: Mun Hennessy / Paris 18 novembre 1922

De László painted relatively few full-length portraits in interiors. However, such portraits as that of Lucy de László at Littleworth Corner [10449], Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham at Chequers [6186] or John de László (The First Drawing Lesson [11772]), rank amongst his most successful works.

This portrait of comtesse Marguerite de Mun counts amongst these untypical portraits, their compositions tending to play on a sophisticated treatment of light. Although the window is not visible here, the sitter’s pale skin and reflective dress are subtly lit by natural light. The viewer is invited to follow the diagonal of her position on the canvas, further extended by the white arum lilies above her head. Not only does this composition focus on the sitter. The diagonal is balanced by the circular pattern of the rug on the lower left of the canvas, echoed by the oval mirror on the top right of the canvas, which all frame the sitter’s figure in her grand drawing-room. De László thus made full use of the interior without losing emphasis on Mme de Mun’s presence in the space.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [110993].

EXHIBITED:

•The French Gallery, London, A Series of Portraits and Studies By Philip A. de László, M.V.O., June, 1923, no. 65

CC 2012