Philip de Laszlo: To Paris!

"Madame Mátyás Polákovits
with her sons Ödön and György"
by Philip de Laszlo

Philip de Laszlo wrote: "When the term at the Academy had ended in May, I returned home. Restless as I have always been throughout my life, I soon began to paint again. I painted a picture, half life-size, called 'The Happy Family,' for submission to the Ministry of Arts and Education. I was very anxious to do my best work, so that I could continue my studies at the Academie Julien in Paris. Happily I won the scholarship!

After this, a wealthy businessman, Mr. Polakovics, invited me to paint a portrait of his wife and youngest son. It was my first full-length portrait, and my first acquaintance in Budapest with a well-to-do family. When I think that I painted that large canvas in a small narrow room, where I could hardly step back, I know I could not do it today. I am sure the portraits were good likenesses. Everything was well finished, but there was no atmosphere in the picture. Well, I was only twenty-one then. The portrait was not only my first important commission, but earned me the highest price I had yet received: 1,000 florins."

With this and the sale of other pictures, he was provided with funds for his journey to Paris and left Budapest late in the autumn of 1890. He continues:

"On the morning after my arrival I went to present myself to Professor Lefebvre to whom I had a letter of introduction. He was a man of culture and dignity, now so rare, and received me in a most sympathetic manner. Not only did he accept me, but he told me to begin work in his class, where I should find myself among forty or fifty students of all nationalities, painting a a life study for the annual class competition.

That same day I also called on the great Hungarian master Michael Munkacsy. He had spent most of his life in Paris, where he was respected and beloved. It was Friday, his At Home day. It is difficult for me to describe my emotions as I entered that splendid and sumptuous house. Since my earliest youth Munkacsy had been the great inspiration of my life. Of humble origin he started life as a carpenter, and ended with an international reputation as a great artist. 

After I told him my plans for the future and asked his advice, he said in his slow voice: 'Many young students from Hungary have called on me in the past. Alas, few have succeeded! I have only one piece of advice to give you, and that is, bear in mind that you are here in a great cosmopolitan city and that there is no middle road for a young man like you. Either you will go down like many of your fellows, or you will go up. Be here for what you came, and come and see me as often as you can.' 

So I left his house saying to myself, 'You too, like Munkacsy, who also began as a poor young man, must raise yourself from the common ruck.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Portrait of a Painter" by Owen Rutter.)