Philip de Laszlo: Marriage

"Philip de Laszlo and His Bride, 1900"

"After a visit to France to paint Count and Countess Jean de Castellane, Philip de Laszlo went to England, then crossed to Ireland to visit Lucy and her family. She drove the pony-trap to meet him and it was teatime when they reached the house. The garden was glowing in the sunshine and the family was on the lawn under the hawthorn tree. It must have been a difficult moment for de Laszlo, as he strode across the grass to greet them all. Certainly he was no longer the shabby artist. He  had painted kings and princes and was doing quite well financially. 

But he was ignorant of the ways of the Irish upper-middle classes to which the Guinnesses belonged. Some of the greatest families in Europe had welcomed him, but de Laszlo could not know that in the country houses of Ireland and England artists were considered scarcely respectable unless they were Royal Academicians. It meant that, despite his success, he still had to fight for recognition and to battle with the British prejudice against foreigners. 

But he had courage and persistence. He had shown his devotion to Lucy by respecting her family's wishes and waiting seven years for her. His behaviour had been impeccable. In the end he won over Lucy's mother. He may not have been the son-in-law she would have chosen, but she knew that her daughter's affection had been tried as well as his, and she bowed to the inevitable. When de Laszlo returned to England he was able to proclaim that he was engaged.

Their wedding took place at the parish church of Stillorgan, Ireland, on 7 June, 1900. De Laszlo wore the traditional gala dress of the Hungarian gentleman. It was of dark green velvet, trimmed with black astrakan, high boots, and a fur-trimmed hat decorated with an eagle's feather. With his sword at his side and his orders upon his chest he looked magnificent, and while he was waiting for the bride he turned towards the congregation to let his future wife's relatives and friends have a good look at him, without a vestige of self-consciousness.

The bridegroom's English was still far from perfect, and, fearing that he might make a blunder, Lucy had taken him through the service very carefully beforehand. He did not make a single mistake in his responses, and after the ceremony, to the strains of Mendelssohn's Wedding March, he and his bride walked down the aisle, which was strewn with rose petals by four small boy and girl Guinness cousins. While a military band played 'The Sun was Shining' de Laszlo posed for his photograph with his wife. His expression suggests the triumphant satisfaction of a man who has found attainment after seven years of struggle, waiting and devotion, and her face glows with happiness and love."

To be continued

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