Figure 1.--This lovely László painting shows his youngest son, John, fascinated by a goldfish bowl. He is wearing a smock in 1917. Smocks were not very common for British boys, but some boys from affluent familes wore smocks like Christopher Robin Milne.

Philip de László painted several portraits of children, most are of his five sons. László was Hungarian, but the Children were from his Irish marriage. They were brought up in Britain and thus were British rather than Hungarian children. The paintings were a kind of diversion for László and an opportunity to experiment with different styles. The one of Stephen, his second son at breakfast is seen on the previous page in 1912. We think it is on of László's best paintings. We have seen about 10 works of the boys, but there may be more. The earlies shows John, his oldest son in 1906. He wears a beret and sailor outfits with ringlet curls. Several were painted in costume or bathrobes. The lovely painting here shows his youngest son, Jonn, fascinated by a goldfish bowl during 1917 (figure 1). He is wearing a smock in 1917. Smocks were not very common for British boys, but some boys from affluent familes wore smocks like Christopher Robin Milne. None of these paintings are as good as the one of Stephen, but they are a good record of boys in the early-20th century. One shows Patrick with flaming red hair. Several are of the younger boys, but we also see the boys a little older one in the chemistry lab or for some reason in Spanish drama garb.

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Created: 12:13 PM 10/13/2018
Last updated: 12:13 PM 10/13/2018