Philip de Laszlo: House/Studio in Budapest

Philip de Laszlo's home/studio in Budapest

Lucy and Philip de Laszlo in his studio

Several years before his engagement and marriage to Lucy Guinness, Philip de Laszlo had decided to have a house with three studios built in Budapest. His idea had been to rent out two of the three studios and the ground-floor flat and to retain the rest of the building for himself. He also proposed to build a small house in the grounds for his mother. His father was living with one of his sisters and her husband. The rent he would receive would help him pay off the loan for the build.

Those plans changed when he married. After their interrupted honeymoon and temporary stay in Switzerland as he painted a portrait, de Laszlo took Lucy to the completed house in Budapest. It was an imposing stone building with two turrets out in front, in the manner of sixteenth-century powder closets. It was well situated in Palma-utca, some distance from the center of Pest, facing the Park Club, one of the fashionable resorts of Budapest society. As planned the house contained three studios. The one on the upper floor de Laszlo let to another painter, and he used the two studios on the floor below. He and Lucy lived on the ground floor, while his mother lived with Marczi his brother in the little house built specifically for her in the garden.

One of the first visits he and Lucy paid in Budapest was to the widow of Ritter von Wechselmann, who had bought his painting of the 'Hofbrauhaus.' 'It was a strange experience for us,' he wrote in his journal, 'to see the picture again together, now that we were married. Although Lucy had posed for the figure of the Englishwoman, she had not seen the canvas since it was completed. It had, and always will have, deep significance for us. It was the first testimony of my love for her, and recalled the happy hours I had spent before her half-finished portrait. What youthful dreams of a great future I had dreamed as I painted that canvas!  But spring grows into summer and many of my dreams had been achieved. We should have liked to have had the picture for our own, but unfortunately our offer to buy it back was declined.'"

To be continued

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