Philip de Laszlo: From Brixton to Holloway

"Alfred Lys Baldry" by Philip de Laszlo*

"After Philip de Laszlo's arrest Mrs. de Laszlo had received innumerable letters of sympathy, not only from his intimate friends and from past sitters, but also from many people he knew only very slightly. Many of his fellow artists, including Mr. John Lavery, wrote expressing they are consternation and regret. Convinced of his integrity, although few denied that he had acted unwisely, prompted by his kind heart and impetuous nature, and everyone was anxious to help him.

Fortunately after de Laszlo's first hearing, he was given the option to move from Brixton Prison to Holloway Internment Camp, which he chose to do. He arrived at the camp in a taxi, with his belongings, accompanied by a prison warder. 

He wrote: "The building had formerly been a workhouse and was surrounded by a garden. After Brixton Prison it seemed to me like Heaven - no high brick walls, no heavy iron gates, no warders with their jangling keys.

I was given another number and joined the other '14b' men - interned British subjects 'under suspicion.' I was given a large corner room with four windows. Among my companions was Dr. Whitehead, an eminent chemist and a delightful man, and Herr Ahlers, the former German Counsul-General, who had been condemned to death for helping some of his fellow countrymen to leave England. 

We all assembled every evening at seven o'clock in the dining room. I was given a place at the center table, which was known as the 'aristocrat table.' I felt happy to be among intelligent men, to have a comfortable room and to be able to got out into the garden when I liked. It was a relief, too, not to see the terrible convict uniform everywhere. I thanked God that I was able to sleep in a decent bed again, and was free of the cell door with the observation glass in it which had upset my nerves so much at Brixton.

The so-called reconsideration of my case took place at the end of December. The judge read out to me a list of foreign sounding names, mostly of people I had painted. There was only one name, that of a Dutch nobleman, I did not know...but then these had come from my address books, one of which was twenty years old. The judge was content and after this I was dismissed."

Although the meeting had seemed to go well, the order for his internment at Holloway remained in force. The war had now been in progress for three years. Anxiety and abnormal conditions bred suspicion and propaganda bearing its fruit of intolerance and hatred. De Laszlo was subjected to repeated attacks in the newspapers. His name and reputation were sullied before the world. Beside the devotion of his wife his great consolation was the loyalty of his friends, but the strain and humiliation of his position so undermined his health that he had a nervous breakdown. The Home Office then gave permission for him to be removed to a nursing home on condition that he gave his parole not to go outside the home, or to communicate with any person but his wife and children."

To be continued

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

*Alfred Lys Baldry was an artist and art critic who wrote his first article on Philip de László in 1911, after the artist's successful exhibition at Agnew’s that year. He soon became de László’s firm friend and the only visitor outside the family allowed at the Ladbroke Gardens nursing home during the dark days of internment.