Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

Magdolna LICHNER: Data on Gyula Benczúr's Collection of Textiles

According to the biographers and the letters he even worked when on holiday, because he wanted to. See, e.g., a letter he wrote to his second wife, Piroska Ürmössy-Boldizsár, HNG Archives 6067/1954. " The time the bookplate was made must have been between a sketch for the painting King Matthias Receiving the Pope's Emissaries (after 1902) and the final completion of that work (c. 1915), namely this motif features in the foreground of the pictures — with minor changes, since the sphinx can be seen not in the background, but next to the steps, a decorative motif on a stumpy stone element flanking it. See Telepy, Katalin: Benczúr. Budapest, 1977, Dis. 50, 51. HNG Inv. No.: 1278, the sketch Inv. No.: F.K. 4339. Marked with the year 1913, the bookplates sketches were published in the catalogue of the Benczúr exhibition held in 1958, under Nos. 78 and 79 - catalogue for the Gyula Benczúr Commemorative Exhibition, HNG, Budapest, 1958, p. 37. 12 See, e.g., the memorial leaves sent by family and friends to the young man studying in Munich. HNG Archives 6085/1954. Independently of one another, two authoritative biographers consider that Erasmus Schwalb (Schwab), who taught Benczúr history, had an important influence on the artist. One was Zoltán Felvinczi Takács, who wrote the introductory study for the catalogue to the "Gyula Benczúr and His Disciples" exhibition held in 1921 (published by the National Hungarian Fine Arts Society, Budapest, 1921), on the first page giving as his sources of biographical data the Magyar Képzőművészeti Lexikon (Hungarian Encyclopedia of the Fine Arts) edited by János Szendrey and Gyula Szentiványi (vol. I, Budapest, 1915) and "those close to the deceased artist". Felvinczy Takács was qualified to speak about the artist: he knew Benczúr's disciples personally, from the painters' school run by Simon Hollósy and officially, since as a member of staff at the Museum of Fine Arts he had direct access to biographical data (Felvinczy Takács, Zoltán: Buddha útján a Távol-Keleten (In Buddha's Footsteps in the Far East). Budapest, 1990. With a foreword by Pál Miklós which gives an account of the author's life. The second authoritative biographer is Sándor Mihalik {Benczúr Kassán [Benczúr in Kassa], Kassa, Felsőmagyarországi Rákóczi Múzeum, 1944, p. 13 and the drawing entitled Titusz Dugovics's Deed of Valour, p. 29), who could have heard the story from the descendants of relatives and friends still in the town when the study was written (Mihalik, op. cit., pp. 11-13, 45; among the sources were recollections by members of the Laszgallner and Benczúr families). 13 Béla Klimkovics mediated the traditions of the Vienna Academy of Painting for the young Gyula Benczúr. See Ország-Világ, 1884, p. 735 (15 November issue), Felvinczy, op. cit., p. 7 and Sándor Mihalik, Benczúr Kassán, p. 17, note 12. In this early period Nepomuk Geiger 's historical compositions, in Anton Ziegler's book Historische Memorabilien, exerted an influence on him; see Felvinczy, op. cit., p. 7 14 Károly Lyka (in Magyar művészélet Münchenben 1867-1896 [Hungarian Artists in Munich, 1867-96], Budapest, 1951) gives an exact description of the changes brought about at the Munich Academy by Piloty's painting, artistic approach and teaching methods after the slightly bloodless and theoretical Peter von Cornélius relinquished control, explaining the kind of model he gave his pupils: "Real fleshand-blood people in period attire proof against an antiquarian's strictures. The fabrics. A textile artist would smack his lips in pleasure at the quality of cloths, fabrics, silks, and velvets. The weapons radiated real steel, and with regard to the furniture one could tell which piece was rosewood and which was oak. The pieces in the mosaics were like real marble. Everything seemed as though it could be touched with the hand. The great canvas was covered not with abstract ideas, but with surprising deeds, in such an arrangement as would edifify an opera house director. And at the same time this world was enlivened by rich colours." 15 With Pál Szinyei Merse he rented a studio, and during the course of mutual correction they developed similar principles (Felvinczy: op. cit., p. 8 and Homer: op. cit., pp. 13-17) Many works by Benczúr prove the fruitfulness of this association, but he did not after all continue in this direction (see, for example, Woman Reading in a Forest, 1875, HNG, Inv. No. 61.121 T, published in Szabó, Júlia: A XIX század festészete Magyarországon [Nineteenth-Century Painting in Hungary]. Budapest: Corvina, 1985 and in Telepy, Katalin: Benczúr Gyula. Budapest, 1977 [111. 14]; Woman in a Red Apron, owner unknown, published in Telepy,