Philip de Laszlo: Reinstated

"Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury"
by Philip de Laszlo

"It had been a memorable day. In the morning Philip de Laszlo had painted a queen. In the afternoon the highest in the land had come thronging to his studio to see his portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The party had been the greatest social success of his career. One can see him in his garden on that sunny July afternoon, bustling among his guests - voluble, eager, magnificently alive. It meant so much to him, all that.

The position of a portrait painter is quite different from that of any other creative artist. He must needs be in closer personal contact with his public than the landscape painter, the writer, the composer. These may remain aloof from the men and women who appreciate their work. But a portrait painter, particularly what is known as a fashionable portrait painter, must have some quality of personal attraction to attain popularity. He may bully his sitters or he may be charming to them. He cannot be negligible is he is to make his way.

It has been said of Sargent that he rarely painted a sitter without making an enemy. De Laszlo rarely painted a sitter without making a friend. He certainly owed much of his early success to this ability to make himself liked. He had many barriers to break down, particularly when he first came to England, but his personal charm and his gallant manner won the hearts of those he met.

He could not have succeeded without his talent; nor could he have been so successful without his charm. In his life, as in his art, he looked for the best in people, and thus tended to bring out the best in them. He knew how to keep his sitters interested and animated while he was painting them. That was important to his work, and it meant that they left his studio stimulated instead of bored. Scores of letters make this abundantly clear - letters of appreciation. The unanimity of their regard is quite extraordinary, and explicable only to those who knew him.

During his internment and adversity his true friends had remained loyal; others had turned against him. Society as a whole, among which were the potential sitters, had cast him out, and, had been slow to accept him after his legal reinstatement. But on that afternoon in July, 1926, they had responded to his invitation and had come to him. The leaders of English life had accepted him once more without reservation. To him it was the ultimate vindication and the assurance of his position in the days to come. It was the peak of his career."

To be continued

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