With his marriage in 1910 to Mabel Brady, the daughter of an entrepreneur, attorney Francis P. Garvan, a graduate of Yale University and New York University Law School, turned to collecting art. Committed to the moral value of art patronage, Garvan ultimately gave Yale the ten thousand objects of American painting, prints, silver, pewter, furniture, and other decorative arts that today form the Mabel B. Garvan Collection. This stands as one of the most comprehensive collections of early American arts and crafts in the nation.

The Hungarian artist Philip Alexius de Lászlo trained in Budapest, Munich, and at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1907 he settled in England and quickly established a reputation as a painter of kings, emperors, and society figures. In the spring of 1921, de Lászlo paid a three-month visit to the United States, where he completed fourteen portraits, including those of President and Mrs. Warren G. Harding. The Garvans were also among de Lászlo's clients that year, and the artist painted an enormous family portrait of Mrs. Garvan and her four children, along with this portrait of the family patriarch.

Philip Alexius de Lászlo (1869–1937)
Oil on canvas, 1921
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Mrs. Anthony Nicholas Brady Garvan
NPG.96.131

Enlarged image

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