Sir Walter Townley (1863-1945) diplomat

  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection
    Diplomat Sir Walter Townley held posts around the world during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. In Paris he was Second Secretary (1892–94) and Chargés d’Affaires (1896); followed by posts in Tehran, Bucharest, Lisbon, Berlin, Constantinople and Washington. He was promoted to the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Argentine Republic and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Paraguay in 1906. He completed his career as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to The Hague, an appointment he received in 1917. He retired in 1919 and died in London in 1945.
  • About the artist
    Philip Alexius De László, portrait painter, was born in Budapest, where he studied at the School of Arts and Crafts from 1884 and at the National Academy of Arts from 1885. He later studied at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Art, Munich, before enrolling at the Academie Julian in Paris in 1890. De Laszlo exhibited widely in Europe, including at the Paris Salon. He received many international honours and commissions from royalty. He settled in England in 1907, the year his first one-man show was held at the Fine Art Society, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1911. In 1914, he became a naturalised British subject, but was interned in 1917. In 1930, he became President of the Royal Society of British Artists. He died in London in 1937.
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  • Details
    Title
    Sir Walter Townley (1863-1945) diplomat
    Date
    July 1911
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 233.00 cm, width: 122.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Robinson & Foster, September 1950
    Inscription
    tl: P.A.Laszlo / 1911 July
    GAC number
    1169