Take five: moments in the life of Philip De László

A NEWLY opened exhibition at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, Suffolk, ‘Philip De László: Master of Elegance’ (until June 23), puts the spotlight on the British years of one of the early-20th-century pre-eminent painters.

1. Born Laub Fülöp in Budapest in 1869, De László had a gift for art and rose to become the portrait painter of choice for Europe’s finest, including, in 1899, Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I, who ennobled him in 1912

2. In 1900, he married Lucy Guinness, settling in London in 1907, where he quickly became a favourite Society portraitist. According to the De László Archive, which curated the exhibition at Gainsborough’s House, he painted more royal sitters than any other artist. Among them were Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, as well as Queen Marie of Romania, née Princess Marie of Edinburgh ( pictured), whose portrait was loaned by the Muzeul Național Peleș to go on display in Sudbury

3. One of the reasons for his success was that he engaged his sitters as he painted them, so that their expressions would be more natural and he would capture their personality, as much as their likeness

4. Despite having become a British subject, De László was interned during the First World War for sending money back to his family in Hungary. He suffered a breakdown as a result

5. The internment didn’t diminish his standing and, with his name cleared in 1919, he continued to paint Britain’s great and good, including Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Elizabeth II, when she was Princess of York