Lucy Madeleine de László de Lombos (née Guinness; 22 December 1870 – 27 December 1950) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

socialite, amateur musician, diarist, and the wife of the painter

Philip de László Philip Alexius László de Lombos (born Fülöp Laub; ; 30 April 1869 – 22 November 1937), known professionally as Philip de László, was an Anglo-Hungarian painter known particularly for his portraits of royal and aristocratic personages. ...

. A member of the prominent

Guinness family The Guinness family is an extensive Irish family known for its achievements in brewing, banking, politics, and religious ministry. The brewing branch is particularly well known among the general public for producing the dry stout beer Guinnes ...

, she was the granddaughter of

Robert Rundell Guinness Robert Rundell Guinness (12 December 1789 – 7 March 1857) was an Anglo-Irish banker, most noted for co-founding the Guinness Mahon bank in 1836. The grandson of Dublin goldbeater Samuel Guinness (1727–1795), he is the first of the "banking ...

, who founded the

Guinness Mahon Guinness Mahon was an Irish merchant bank originally based in Dublin but more recently with operations in London. History Formation The firm was founded as a land agency in Dublin in 1836 by barrister Robert Rundell Guinness, a great-nephew of t ...

bank. She became part of the

Hungarian nobility The Kingdom of Hungary held a Nobility, noble class of individuals, most of whom owned landed property, from the 11th century until the mid-20th century. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the lat ...

in 1912, when her husband was ennobled by Emperor

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...

. Guinness, who met de László in 1892 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

while studying music, was the subject of a series of his portraits.

Early life and family

Guinness was born at Burton Hall, her family's

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

Stillorgan Stillorgan (, also and previously or ), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains many housing estates, shops and oth ...

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

. Her father, Henry Guinness, Esq., was a justice of the peace who served as the Dublin manager of the

bank, and her mother was Emelina Brown Guinness, daughter of James Brown, Esq. of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. She was a sister of the politician and engineer Henry Seymour Guinness. A member of the aristocratic

, she was the granddaughter of banker

and a grandniece of the politician

Richard Samuel Guinness Richard Samuel Guinness (7 June 1797 – 27 August 1857) was an Irish lawyer and a Member of Parliament. Parents Guinness was one of the sons of Richard Guinness (1755-1829), a Dublin barrister and judge, and his wife Mary Darley, descended fro ...

Adult life

In the early 1890s, Guinness and her sister, Eustace, studied music in

. In 1892, while in Munich, she met the Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip László while he was studying at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Her family disapproved of her courtship with a student artist of humble beginnings, despite his early success as a portraitist, and so the couple parted ways. László went on to paint portraits of the

Bulgarian royal family The last Bulgarian royal family () is a line of the Koháry branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which ruled Bulgaria from 1887 to 1946. The last tsar, Simeon II, became Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001 and remained in office until ...

, and

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

, eventually gaining the approval of the Guinness family. Guinness was granted permission to marry him, and the two wed in 1900. Her husband, who was raised Jewish and converted to Catholicism, converted to Anglicanism in order to marry her. The couple had six children. After they wed, the couple lived in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

before settling in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1907. Guinness and her husband became part of the

when László was ennobled by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1912, taking the surname "de László de Lombos".

Legacy

A 1902 de László portrait of Lucy, titled ''Lucy de László'', hangs at her family's former estate

Farmleigh Farmleigh is the official Irish state guest house. It was formerly one of the Dublin residences of the Guinness family. It is situated on an elevated position above the River Liffey to the northwest of the Phoenix Park, in Castleknock. The est ...

. The portrait depicts her with a violin, referencing her musical capabilities. Her husband began sketches for the portrait while the two were on holiday in Rothéneuf. Her portrait is the first one de László painted since their honeymoon, and the first of his portraits to use landscape as a background. Her husband painted at least five known portraits where she was the subject. He is one of the first portrait artists to be recognised for the inclusion of the talents of his female subjects in the paintings of them. Guinness' diaries were published in London in 2019 under the title ''The Diaries of Lucy de László, Volume I: 1890–1913''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laszlo, Lucy de 1870 births 1950 deaths 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 19th-century Irish violinists 19th-century Irish women writers 20th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Irish women musicians 20th-century Irish women writers British artists' models

Lucy Lucy is an English language, English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings ar ...

Hungarian nobility Irish Anglicans 20th-century Irish diarists Irish expatriates in Austria-Hungary Irish expatriates in Germany Irish socialites Irish women violinists People from Stillorgan Writers from County Dublin Musicians from County Dublin 20th-century Irish violinists