Bárkányi Ildikó - Lajkó Orsolya, F. (szerk.): A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 2018. Új folyam 5. (Szeged, 2018)

Művészettörténet - Szabó Tamás: Joó mester legjelesebb alkotása - Zsótér Andor portréja. Új adatok tükrében a Joó família és a barokk kori rajzok adományozója

Szabó Tamás

Joó Ferenc legjelesebb alkotása

THE MOST OUTSTANDING WORK OF FERENC JOÓ: THE PORTRAIT OF ANDOR ZSÓTÉR FROM 1846 The Joó Family and the patron of the Museum of Szeged in light of new data

Tamás Szabó

In 1846 the 22 years old playboy Andor Zsótér, wearing his stylish wedding attire, was immortalized by his good friend, the eminent photographer of Szeged, Ferenc Joó. The works of Wien Academy’s alumni have been in the historical gallery of the Szeged Town Museum and its legal successor the Móra Ferenc Museum since 1921. Attribution based on the latest research contradict previous definitions regarding the artwork, whereas the painting supposedly depicts town official "József Szeless”, who never existed under this name. Data, which lead to a new interpretation, came to light during the oil painting’s reconstruction and historical research in 2014. Mapping the circumstances how the portrait got to the museum also clarifies the role of the Zsótér and Joó descendants in the sales transaction initiated in 1920. For the sake of authentic provenance the author clarifies the partially inaccurate publications in materials regarding the painting from the past decades. The author overviewed the sources of initial and consequent information, the elusive documents of a museum or two from the capital and the countryside, documents from libraries, ecclesiastic or private collections and the Wien Archives. An old debt of Szeged’s cultural historians is being repaid with the presentation of art collector Andor Zsótár and his profile, outlining the major milestones of his life while omitting any legendary elements; introducing the patron who, having inherited the family fortune (river boats, houses and land) following the death of

his father in 1861, had a desire for advocating arts and for the collection and preservation of artworks as well. (We owe it to Andor Zsótér to have preserved a valuable dossier of darwings by Johann Lucas Kracker, the famous painter of baroque churches, who lived in Eger. Zsótér gave the ink drawings to the new city museum in 1899. The donor had been given the drawings by Ferenc Joó, portrait painter, for the Zsótér library, which already existed in 1845, or inherited them from Joó after he died in 1880.) In the context of the young Zsótér’s portrait and its painter one can familiarize himselfwith certain, less-known periods of the Joó family's life and with hitherto unclear family relationships. We also showcase a few items with local historical significance which had been given to the museum of Szeged by the two families. We look deeply into the origins of Joó’s painter family, the studies of the youngster and his artistic activities, with emphasis on the contents of a letter from Menyhért Gábriel, one of his painter friends (with János Vastag and Ferenc Brodszky among them as well). The discovered letters and the details of the origin story (thanks to the memoirs of one of the descendants of the Fráter family, close relatives of the Joó family) are clearly verified. In addition to proving the identification of person, the study lets us have a glimpse into hitherto unknown, unique local and art historical moments during the outlining the family trees of the Zsótér family and their friends, the Joó dinasty.

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