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| Victoria Eugenia, Queen of Spain, 1927. |
A very small sub-category of de László's prodigious output are portraits of ladies in Spanish mantillas. Here are most if not all of them:
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| Victoria Eugenia, Queen of Spain, 1927. Study for the above painting. |
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Madame Olga Edwards, née Olga Budge Zañartu, 1920.
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| The Black Mantilla, 1929. |
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The marquesa de Valparaíso y del Mérito, née Elena Patiño Rodríguez, 1930.
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| Mrs. John Walter, née Phyllis Charlotte Hilda Foster, 1924. |
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| Mrs. John Walter, 1924. |
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| Spanish Dancers, 1927. |
I'm afraid that the former Princess Ena of Battenberg makes a highly improbable Latin señorita. No surprise, really - her mother, Princess Beatrice, was perhaps Queen Victoria's most wholly Hanoverian-looking child.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen!
ReplyDeleteI was looking at the oeuvre of the Swedish painter Alexander Roslin the other day. It reminded me of you when I saw those beautiful period dresses, that 18th century atmosphere.........
On another subject, there were many blond and blue eyed AUTHENTIC Spanish señoritas of royal blood, and among them: Doña Maria Eugenia de Palafox-Portocarrero, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marchioness of Ardales, who later became the wife of Napoleon III
Another was Catalina de Aragon, Queen of England. Despite Catalina's many portraits showing her as a beautiful blond, blue eyed girl, Hollywood to this day insists in portraying Henry VIII's first wife looking otherwise.
I am delighted with the portrait of that Queen of Spain for the simple reason of her resemblance to my late mother.
Another señorita, but not of royal blood, my late mother was even more beautiful than a sunny day. Her hair was blond, her complexion like porcelain and her huge eyes of a greyish blue shade.
And...guess what? She had come from Spain! Her mother was from Barcelona and her father from Valencia. She spoke perfect Catalan.
Of course she was a Latina. Her culture was of the people who spoke one of the several languages derived from an ancient one called Latin.
Hello, Maria! Yes, you are quite correct about the stereotype of the "dark" Spanish woman; they aren't all gypsies! ; ) Of course ma belle impératrice Eugénie had a half dose of Scottish blood from her mother; Doña Manuela and her elder daughter, "Paca", the future duquesa de Alba, were brunette, but Eugénie inherited the full-on "ginger" coloring. I'd say that in other respects, physically she more resembled the Spanish "type". But her goddaughter, the queen of Spain, in addition to her blondness, was quite tall, curvy, and sturdily built, something the Spanish were quite admiring of and proud of, and which was much commented on at the time. So I'd say it was more her physique than her coloring, though she was - quite - blonde, that marked her out as "un-Spanish".
DeleteAnd, yes, I - adore - Roslin! One of my very favorite painters. I'd say that the faces of the people in his portraits are not often terribly interesting, but NO one paints fabric and all the trimmings, etc., better than he does. I am always inspired. : )
I forgot to comment about one of the other ladies with a mantilla, the one with the last name Patiño. When I saw it I thought maybe she was the sister of Antenor Patiño, the great Bolivian tycoon, one of the richest men of his time.
ReplyDeleteJust saying.......
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