Bridgeman Education

Name: Laszlo, Philip Alexius de (1869-1937)
Nationality: English
Biography: (1869-1937) One of Europe’s leading portrait painters of the last century, the Hungarian artist, Philip de Laszlo was in particular demand as a painter of royalty and members of the aristocracy. It is less known that many an industrialist commissioned portraits from him, also scientists, politicians, writers and other eminent and ordinary people. After his first London exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 1907, King Edward VII and his daughter Princess Victoria, sat to him at Buckingham Palace and he went on to paint almost the entire British and Greek royal families of the time. He also painted four American presidents, most notably Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. He was an artist of great natural skill; his landscapes, still lives and figure sketches were as beautifully and fluently painted as his portraits and his works remained in great demand until his death in 1937. A large exhibition of Lazlo’s work (some one hundred oils, sketches, drawings and sculpture) is to be held at Christie’s auction house in January 2004 to mark Hungary’s accession to the European Union.

Laszlo, Philip Alexius de (1869-1937)