Gyergyádesz László, ifj.: „Csavargó”. Mednyánszky László élete és művészete (Kecskemét, 2007)

‘Sitting in the Pub’ there is some background, however, on his paintings made in the half decade before the First World War he almost fully left the usual, over-developed scenery which took the attention too much from the essence, which was usual in the genre painting during the 19th century. These works are more eventful and ichnographically the human aggression is emphasized. Especially the collection of the Museum of Szolnok has significant examples of this era. The Bandit (The Highway Attack 1st part of the 1910s, cat. 84) is scenery described by Dickens in a big town without any sentimentalism, where the painter concentrates on the frightened face of the old man with a silk hat pushed to the wall. The same colour combination of the darkness of the night combined with the already mentioned dirty brownish- red of aggressive effect appears on his work in Kecskemét Leaning his Head on his Hands (first half of the 1910s, see p. 50) even darker brown and black in colours. The painter flashes the eyes of the figure sitting in the pub similarly to a predator waiting for its victim with a sharp but at the same time hiding light in the darkness forecasting an everyday tragedy of poverty shown on the painting of Szolnok.

The small sized Lynching also from Szolnok (around 1911-1913, see p. 80) although it is not finished, according to Markója, is one of Mednyánszky’s ‘nonexisting main works’. In the sketch-books there are several preliminary pictures, variations, part studies of smaller groups, even its variation of war is known from 1917. The wanderings and the metamorphosis of the work and its motifs which can be followed as it developed, is one of the best examples of the individual method striving for polysemy, what the painter described like this: ‘Turning over and crossings. I must deal with this question because I must find a rule how certain things will be turned over or how they will be crossed in the world of theories. The formula of higher operations.’ I.e. the content and the form are in close relationship in Mednyánszky’s works, too but one form can have several different, even opposing meanings, interpretations.

According to estimations even today we know only 2/5 of Mednyánszky’s total lifework, and only half of it is in public collections. One of the most significant collections - primarily considered its quality and not the quantity - is the one in Kecskemét which consists of 32 works from the Wolfner-Farkas collection. The last two decades of Mednyánszky’s life was significantly determined by his contract with József Wolfner from 1899, and then from 1903 (renewed in 1914) another contract with the Singer and Wolfner Ltd. Mednyánszky’s unique and quite expensive way of life, the flats and ateliers he maintained at the same time both in Vienna and Budapest, his permanent presenting (due to this the price of his works went lower) made it difficult to keep the contract. József Wolfner did not only finance Mednyánszky’s creative life, but their relationship meant often more than that. Besides their correspondence it is enough to mention that in 1900- 1902 Mednyánszky took Wolfner’s son and taught him, who became an important painter later under the name István Farkas. Farkas himself collected his earlier master’s paintings, he also planned to found a separate museum for them, however, the Second World War and his tragic death in 1944 made it impossible. In 1948 the Wolfner-Farkas collection of more than one thousand pieces were divided into 5 parts by the inheritors. In the same year the two sons of István Farkas, Károly and Pál left Hungary illegally and went to Rome, so hoping for a more favourable historical situation they left their shares with a false contract with Ferenc Glücks they had met one year earlier. The significant part of this collection, 291 works, became the property of the Kecskemét Gallery in two parts in 1980 and 1989

Mednyánszky in order to fulfil an old dream, as he heard that the World War broke out, immediately wanted to join the army. However, due to his age he was not admitted, he needed the help of his brother in law, István Czóbel, to ask the Prime Minister, István Tisza, who gave him a special permission to be present at the locations of the war as the drawer of two papers of the time (Budapesti Hírlap and Új Idők). From 7th