Fulop ( Philip ) Alexius de László of Lombos was a Hungarian painter born with Budapest on June 1st 1869 and died in London in 1937.

Biography

Born in a modest family (her father was commercial which had made bad deals) which was opposed to its vocation of painter, Philip Alexius de László studied with Budapest with Bertalan Székely and Károly Lotz, with Munich with the royal Academy of arts of Bavaria, then in Paris, the Académie Julian. It obtained its first ordering of a portrait for the court of Bulgaria at 24 years and establishes its reputation of portraitist in the years 1890, in Hungary, Austria and Germany. He worked initially with Munich, then with Budapest and Vienna.

In 1900, it married Lucy Madeline Guinness and directed its activity towards the Ireland and the England. It settled with London in 1907 and became the preferred painter of the aristocracy, regarded as the natural successor of John Singer Sargent. It painted many portraits of family members royal British. In 1908, it was invited to the the United States to paint with the White House a portrait of the president Theodore Roosevelt. It obtained British nationality in 1914.

In 1917, it was arrested and imprisoned for one year for suspicion of intelligence with the enemy. It was released for health reasons and internee in a convalescent home. It was bleached in 1919. After the First World War, it became again one of the portraitists in sight in Europe. At the end of its career, it will have painted more than 2.700 portraits.

It binds with Gramont, of which it paints the portraits in 1902, and henceforth spends each year a few days in their Château of Vallière to Mortefontaine (Oise).