Philip de Laszlo: Other Subjects

"An Algerian Woman from Biskra"
by Philip de Laszlo

"It was not until early in 1923 that Philip de Laszlo was able to take his wife for their first real holiday since the war. They spent some time in Algeria. He was excited and delighted by all he saw, and enjoyed painting Arab types, and making sketches of the sunsets over the desert. 

On their way home they stayed in Palermo and Naples. One afternoon after visiting Pompeii, they walked to the summit of a hill overlooking a plane. De Laszlo was carried away by the view. 

'In front of me,' he wrote in his diary, 'were six large umbrella-shaped pine trees, their deep green tones kissed by the setting sun. The distant mountains were a light warm lilac. There was a small village below us, and the foreground was a lovely emerald green. The whole scene was as brilliantly colored as an opal. I sat down, and while Lucy was busy writing postcards, I painted a study of the scene. My heart rejoiced to be able to preserve in color something of that splendor.'

'I feel regretful that I have not painted more landscapes in the past. It seems to me there is only one right method of painting landscape - to paint a résumé of Nature and to try to do it in one sitting, and a larger picture in not more than three. I hope I may be able to do this when I reach Rome. I am longing to paint to my hearts desire in the open air.'

If God grants me health, I hope I may come back next year. I wish I were ten years younger so that I could do more work. But my heart is young and my health is good. I hope to do what I have missed when I have earned enough to pay off the expenses of our new home, but for six months I shall be obliged to work for the government in order to pay off my supertax.' In June the first exhibition de Laszlo had held since the war opened at the French Gallery in Pall Mall. He showed over sixty portraits, including a few examples of his earlier work, together with some of the landscapes and Arab studies he had painted during his holiday.

Commenting on the sketches and studies which had been included in the exhibition, a writer for 'The Studio' declared that they were too significant to be dismissed as the diversions of an artist who as a rule was occupied in work of more importance, and regretted that de Laszlo did not allow himself more opportunities to deal with subjects outside his regular range of practice, which is what, in fact, he so often longed to do."

To be continued

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