Dr. Paul d’Orbán, Contributing Editor, Hungarian paintings

Very sadly Paul died on the 23rd May 2020 just three days short of his 90th birthday. He was one of the Catalogue Raisonné’s greatest supporters and his contribution to our project was immense. His loss is felt by us all. Paul’s profound historical knowledge informed the catalogue entries he wrote for the important Hungarian portraits and he led the translation of the hundreds of Hungarian and Gothic German documents in The de László Archive.  

Paul long hoped that we would achieve the translation into Hungarian of the artist’s biography Philip de László His Life and Art. After many years of work it was published in Budapest in 2019 and coincided with the first exhibition of de László’s art in the country of his birth since 1925. We were delighted that Paul and his wife Jocelyn could attend the opening of Philip de Laszlo: “I am an artist of the world” at the Hungarian National Gallery. He shared our joy and pride that it was well received and neither could have been achieved without his steadfast help.

Paul was born in London in 1930, a great-nephew of the artist’s wife Lucy de László. His father was Transylvanian Hungarian and he lived there for the early part of his life. He was educated at the Calvinist Reformist College in Sárospatak, Hungary, and read medicine at the University of Aberdeen and was a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatry, London. For many years he was consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and worked also as a prison psychiatrist. 

After his retirement, Paul and Jocelyn moved to Victoria, Canada in 1999 to be near to their family. With admirable adaptation to the rapid development of internet technology he was able to be actively involved as an international member of the catalogue raisonné team and continued his work for us until very recently.

We are so thankful to have known and worked with Paul for so many years and we will miss him both professionally and as a kind and erudite dear cousin and friend.

With happy memories and immense gratitude for Paul's support.

 Damon and Sandra de Laszlo

and the Catalogue Raisonné Team

May 2020