Queen Victoria Eugenie’s de László Portrait

Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain sat for what would become the most celebrated of her Portraits by the renowned society painter Philip de László at his London studio on this day in 1926, 100 years ago! This masterpiece remains one of de László’s finest royal portraits and is was loaned earlier this year to the Victoria Eugenia Exhibition at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, née Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena of Battenberg 1926

Seated half-length, wearing a sleeveless evening gown with a stole over her left arm, a tiara, drop earrings and a long diamond necklace

Oil on canvas, 100 x 75 cm (39 ½ x 29 ½ in.)

Inscribed lower left: de László / 1926

This portrait was painted during the royal couple’s two-week private visit to England in 1926. As he had done in the ‘Osborne Cottage’ study portrait [7936], de László used the colours the Queen favoured, grey and blue, to enhance her beauty, depicting her here in a silvery pale blue evening gown. De László started the portrait on 2 July, the day he organised a large garden party to show his recently completed portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson The artist described in his journal the circumstances in which this first sitting took place:

“Before her arrival her German maid, escorted by a detective, brought her jewelry, including her tiara. Our nice butler, Webster, stood at the gate, his chest resplendent with medals won in the Great War. I waited on the studio steps, and Lucy stood inside with a bouquet.

Her Majesty arrived punctually at 10.30, accompanied by her brother, Lord Carisbrooke. It was just two years since I had last seen her, when she visited my exhibition at the French Gallery. She looked splendid, more beautiful than I had ever seen her, and her blond hair and colouring were still as lovely as ever. As always, she was most gracious, and was evidently pleased when Lucy offered her the flowers. Then she dressed and put on the tiara. She looked magnificent: it is a great test of a woman’s natural attraction to sit in evening dress in full daylight.

As usual, she inspired me, and, tired though I was, I pulled myself together and began to paint. After making a pencil drawing I immediately attacked the canvas I had previously prepared in its frame. The painting progressed with lightning rapidity of which I was quite unaware, so carried away was I by my enthusiasm. Throughout my career, my best work has always been done when I have painted without much consideration or preparation, and very quickly.

I had been at work half an hour when the Queen’s mother, Princess Beatrice, arrived with her lady-in-waiting, Miss Cochrane. They were all astonished with the rapid progress of the portrait; in fact it was so far advanced that I was able to leave it on view that afternoon. Her Majesty left at one o’clock.”

It would appear from her signature in the artist’s sitters’ book that Queen Ena also sat to him on 7 July 1926. The portrait was finished on the 8th at Fitzjohn’s Avenue, on the eve of de László’s departure for a three-week ‘cure’ in Normandy.

This is the most regal and iconic of the five recorded portraits of the Queen of Spain by de László. It was painted sixteen years after the artist’s first official portrayal of Victoria Eugenia, when she was only twenty-two. Whereas her 1910 portrait reflected a certain youthful diffidence, the present picture shows the Queen more confident in her role and femininity, with all her royal attributes,

Queen Victoria Eugenie wore her Fleur-de-Lys Tiara and Diamond Rivières.

Her Fleur-de-Lys Tiara which was given to her by the King in 1906 as a wedding present, made by the Madrid jeweller Ansorena. As for her long Diamond Rivières, also a wedding present from Alfonso XIII, it was originally shorter, but every year the King gave her new diamonds to extend it.

It was presented by the Queen to her mother, Princess Beatrice, of whom de László also made a head study in oil in August 1926 [3488]. After Princess Beatrice’s death, it passed to her son, and was photographed in his house at 33 Kew Green in 1952. After his death in 1960 it hung in the drawing room of Queen Victoria Eugenia’s residence, Vieille Fontaine, in Lausanne, until her own death in 1969. According to an article by Jaime Peñafiel on Vieille Fontaine,a postage stamp based on this portrait was issued some years later.

Provenance

Princess Henry of Battenberg, the sitter’s mother;
The Marquess of Carisbrooke, the sitter’s brother;
Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, the sitter;
By descent to the Infanta Doña María Cristina de Borbón y Battenberg, the sitter’s daughter, and thence by descent

The de László Portrait remains in a private collection, and was loaned earlier this year to the Victoria Eugenia Exhibition at the Royal Palace of Madrid.