Philip Alexius de László: Early Influences

"Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of Great
Britain, nee Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite
Bowes Lyon; Consort of George VI" by
Philip de Laszlo

"'Has any one painter ever before painted so many interesting and historical personages?' wrote Lord Selborne to de Laszlo in 1927. It would be difficult to think of one. During the course of his career de Laszlo painted over 2,700 portraits. Not even Antony Van Dyck left so representative a collection of his time, and de Laszlo's was the momentous period of transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.

In his biography he begins by recalling his life as a child: 'It was in the year 1869, on 30 April, that my dear mother bore me in humble circumstances in Budapest. When I was born I already had two sisters, after me came my brother Marczi, then Pauline, then Arnold, who after a weary illness died a few years later. I think that after Arnold I had three more brothers, who all died during the first years of their lives.

As I grew older, drawing alone gave me pleasure. It was a hobby of mine to collect the rough coloured papers in which groceries were delivered to use them for drawing on. I kept the drawings in the divan which also was my bed. If my aunts came, my little brother would bring out my drawings, but my aunts showed little enthusiasm for my art, and my father even less than they.

My school days came to an abrupt end when I was nine and thrashed by the headmaster for kissing a girl. Needless to say I avoided seeing her again, and the school never saw me again either. When I left school I had an earnest desire to find work so that I could lighten my mother's burden.

Also at this time my great fellow countryman, Michael Munkacsy, had earned an international reputation with his picture 'Christ before Pilate,' and had come to Budapest. The picture was on exhibition and I wanted to see this great work which all the world admired, but I lacked the few kreuzers that were necessary. Therefore I went to my uncle, who was a doctor, and unlike my father, took a great interest in my love of art. He gave me a whole florin.

I went early next morning when there was hardly a soul in the room. I can find no words to describe my feelings as I stood there looking at the picture. I gazed at the Christ with his godlike expression undergoing his earthly fate. I trembled before the greatness of the work. Child as I was, I could not fully understand it, yet I felt its artistic worth with my whole being. I went away gripped by the resolution that I too would accomplish something great in art like this Michael Munkacsy, who had started life as poor as I was myself."

To be continued

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