According to Rutter, the artist’s young sitter “was ‘intelligent and full of character,’ but ‘very sleepy and restless’ at her second sitting after having attended Queen Mary’s birthday luncheon party.”
De
László had already met his sitter when painting her parents the Duke [9123] and Duchess of York [4460], and recalled that “it was a very happy moment when one day the little Princess Elizabeth called at the studio
with her Lady-in-Waiting. There was no sign of shyness and she was greatly interested in the portraits of her parents, and made some very amusing remarks.” According to the press coverage of his painting Princess
Elizabeth, it seems that de László enjoyed making her portrait. The Daily Times, 21 June 1933, wrote: “Who are the greatest feminine personalities of the day? Royalty, politicians, and hostesses hurried away from
their breakfast tables yesterday, despite the prospect of a long day of receptions, dinner parties, and dances, lasting well into this morning, to discover the judgement of a painter – the famous Mr. Philip de Laszlo.
The answer was typical of this little wizard of colour, whose studio is frequented by so many well-known people – Princess Elizabeth of York and the late Anny Ahlers.
Their portraits were two of the outstanding
impressions of this exhibition in Old Bond-street …Princess Elizabeth sat enthroned among them all, in white frills and a blue sash, but her gilt chair was under a typical English sky, and the glimpse of English
countryside was a reminder that she was Elizabeth of England … The portrait is for the Duchess of York, and the Duke specially requested that the Princess should be given her correct name in the catalog. It is ‘Her
Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York’.” Interviewed by a journalist, de László told him of an “amusing which took place while the portrait was being painted. At the end of a sitting the Princess remarked confidentially,
‘I am going to tell you something, Mr de Laszlo, that will surprise you.’ ‘Oh’, said the artist, ‘What is that?’ ‘I paint, too, and I’m a very good painter. I’ll bring some of my work next time and show you.’”
De László painted a landscape view of the Copper Horse in Windsor Park dated 3 June 1933 [11025], which was probably made during a break from painting the present portrait. This was very typical of de László,
who was an indefatigable man, always taking an opportunity to paint a view or scene that caught his eye. Many remained in his studio on his death. Some, as in this instance, were presented by the artist to the subject
of the commissioned portrait that had occasioned the painting of the study. Christopher Lloyd has pointed out that the silhouette of the Copper Horse is just visible in the lower right hand quarter of the painting
and it may well have been for this reason that de László made the separate oil sketch of the view from the castle.
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