110542                                                                                    

Elena Peña de Álzaga Unzué, née Elena Peña Unzué  1924        

Seated full-length in a green upholstered armchair, her legs to the left, her upper body slightly to the right, head turned and looking away to the left, wearing a long pale silk dress, her left hand, adorned with bracelets, resting on the left armrest of the chair, her right hand to her chin

Oil on canvas, 152 x 91 cm (59 ¾  x 35 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László / Paris 1924

Sitters’ Book II, f. 41: Elena Peña de Alzaga Unzué / 21 Septiembre 1924

Private Collection

1924 was an unusually busy year for the artist, the highlight being a solo exhibition of fifty works at the French Gallery, Pall Mall, in June. Among these were his portrait of Pope Pius XI [6690], recently completed during a visit to the Vatican,^[1] and that of Queen Marie of Romania [3200]. The Morning Post of 19 July 1924, lists Elena Peña and her husband, Félix de Álzaga Unzué among the many guests to a dinner given by Philip and Lucy de László in London to celebrate the occasion.^[2] 

A letter from W.P. Winchester of the French Gallery suggests that the present picture was commissioned through their agency: “I hope that you were able to complete the portraits for M. Unzué, and I am also hoping that many of the enquiries we received at the Gallery have resulted in your being able to complete some more portraits before long. I mention this because, as I remarked to you when I last saw you, I want the exhibition to be, as well as an artistic success, a financial one.”^[3] 

This portrait was painted in Paris between 30 September, when de László had tea with the sitter, and his return to London on 31 October. The artist has portrayed her seated in the same green silk covered chair used for the 1921 portraits of María  Mercedes de Alvear [3434] and Elvira Santamarina de Lezica Alvear [110549]. De László seems to have particularly favoured the resulting colour scheme for his South American sitters, their pale silk dresses contrasting with the vibrant green of the chair. The pose is particularly striking and compositionally complicated, reflecting the ambitious approach de László took with the portraits of many of his South American sitters. Several can now be numbered among the artist’s most successful works, including the present portrait and those of Sofía Terrero de Santamarina [9948] and Mercedes Santamarina Gastañaga [110553].

Elena Peña Unzué was born on 19 April 1892, the daughter of Alfredo Peña Lezica (died 1913) and Elena Unzué Baudrix (1870-1897), who died before the sitter reached the age of five. She had two brothers and one sister. On 8 May 1916 Elena married her second cousin, Félix de Álzaga Unzué (1885-1974), the son of Félix de Álzaga Piñeyro (1853-1919) and Ángela Unzué Gutiérrez (born 1859). Félix de Álzaga Unzué’s first cousin, María Florentina Moreno Vivot de Álzaga [110543], was painted by the artist in 1928.

Her husband’s patrician Argentine family dated back to don Martín de Álzaga (born 1755), a member of the Basque nobility. He had left the Basque country in Spain for Argentina at the age of eleven. He became a successful businessman and politician in Argentina and a national hero during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata 1806-07.

Elena and Félix de Álzaga Unzué did not have children and lived primarily in the Palacio Álzaga Unzué, their large mansion in Buenos Aires. This was a wedding present from Félix de Álzaga Unzué to his young wife, designed by the Scottish architect Robert Prentice in an eclectic Belle Époque-style. The palace, known as La Mansión, was not completed until 1920^[4] and the young couple lived close to the site, at the home of the sitter’s parents,^[5] during the planning and building of the mansion. The exquisite interiors of the new Palacio were decorated in Louis XV and Louis XVI style, influenced by their many stays in Paris. Such were their demands of quality material for construction that some of the fabric was exported from Europe, even during the First World War. It was their principal residence until they died.

Félix de Álzaga Unzué was a substantial Argentine landowner whose great passion was the breeding of racehorses.  His thoroughbreds ran in Argentina, and were also transported to France to race at Chantilly, Deauville and Cannes. His stud farm, Los Polvorines, was located a short distance from Buenos Aires. He was elected President of the Argentine Jockey Club in 1934 and served as President on several other occasions until 1950. Elena was an enthusiastic ally in this commitment. The couple spent their Argentine summers in Mar del Plata, to the south of Buenos Aires, where their society friends generally convened. They would also stay at their several estancias: San Simón, Santa Clara, and San Jacinto.

Elena Peña de Álzaga Unzué died on 5 November 1982, surviving her husband by eight years.

LITERATURE:

•Newspaper Cuttings I, p. 59

•DLA094-0019, The Morning Post, 19 July 1924

•DLA107-0228, letter from W.P. Winchester to de László, 26 September 1924

SMdeL 2012