A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 47. (2008)

Tóth Károly: Tornyai János művei a Herman Ottó Múzeumban. Adatok és megfigyelések a Petró-gyűjtemény Tornyai-képeiről

JÁNOS TORNYAI'S WORKS IN THE HERMAN OTTÓ MUSEUM Tornyai

's paintings in the Petró Collection The study presents the works of János Tornyai (1869-1936), a painter active in Hódmezővásárhely, kept in the art collection of the Herman Ottó Museum of Miskolc. With the exception of a single painting, the artworks came into the museum's possessions from the collection of Sándor Petró, a renowned doctor and art collector. Two paintings were exhibited at Miskolc during Tornyai's lifetime as part of the Upper Hungary travelling exhibition organised by Bertalan Balogh in 1906; however, neither of them was part of the Petró Collection. Research on the paintings and the drawing in the Miskolc museum has contributed to determining their role in Tornyai 's oeuvre, as well as to a better understanding of the painter's art and the paintings' artistic afterlife. The five works in question are made up of an early drawing portraying a folk scene and four oil paintings. Two of these, "The carpenter's apprentice" and "The legacy" can be assigned to Tornyai 's early period, characterised by rich, dark tones. The third, "Woman's portrait", can be dated to before the 1912 exhibition in Temesvár on the testimony of the autographic inscription on the reverse, while the fourth, "Late Autumn", probably dates to the same period. An earlier work, portraying the landscape of the Great Plain, can be seen on its back. Károly Tóth