The Hon Sandra Daphne de László (nee Hacking) 1950-2026

The Hon Sandra Daphne de László, who died 12 October, 2026, aged 76, was a scion of the Barons Hacking.

Sandra trained at the Victoria and Albert Museum, achieving a Diploma (with Credit) at the Study Centre for the History of the Fine & Decorative Arts 1972-3. For eleven years she worked part time in the Picture Department at Spink and Son, then as a guide at the Tate Gallery and at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital for their Healing Arts Programme. She has been working on the De László Catalogue Raisonné since she dared to write her first letter to an owner in New York in 1989.  

She was co-curator with Christopher Wood and Richard Ormond of the de László exhibition A Brush with Grandeur at Christie’s London in January 2004, and its accompanying catalogue. She was co-curator for the exhibition De László in Holland at the Museum van Loon, Amsterdam, March – June 2006,  and British Editor of the book De László in Holland. 

In 2010 the National Portrait Gallery in London mounted a Special Display: Philip de László, Portraits, to celebrate the completion of the indexing of the artist’s papers by Sandra’s team – a 5 year endurance test of transcribing & translating some 15,000 letters and documents. The Catalogue Raisonné is still very much in progress and the illustrated picture descriptions are published online. In 2016 Sandra and her editors attained the 1,000 mark (the equivalent of some several printed volumes) – which may be less than one quarter of the final count of  portraits painted by de László.

She was born 10 June, 1950, the elder daughter of the 2nd Baron Hacking (1910-1971), and his wife the former Daphne Violet Finnis (1915-1998).

She married 18 July, 1972, Damon Patrick de Laszlo (born 8 October, 1942), son of Group Capt David Patrick de Laszlo (1909-1980), and his wife the former Hon Deborah Hamar Greenwood (1917-1980), daughter of the 1st Viscount Greenwood, PC (1870-1948).

Damon de Laszlo is one of the seven grandsons of the great portrait painter Philip de Laszlo (1869-1937).

Sandra de Laszlo leaves issue, two sons, Robert (born 1977), William (born 1979), and a daughter, Lucy (born 1975).

-=-