Philip de László was born in Hungary under the name Laub Fülöp Elek, and was trained as a porcelain and majolica painter. In 1892 he painted his most famous work “The Hofbräuhaus.” He then became a portraitist, especially of high-ranking aristocrats (including the Bulgarian royal and German Imperial family). In 1900 he married Lucy Madeleine Guinness, a member of the influential Scottish Guinness family, receiving British citizenship in 1914. In 1903 de László was raised to the rank of a nobleman in Austria-Hungary. During World War I he was interned for more than 12 months in 1917-18 as a potential sympathizer of the enemies. The submitted painting is a portrait of the later Countess Sylvia Széchényi. Her mother was one of the heiresses from the Vanderbilt dynasty.
Great Britain