Gärtner Petra (szerk.): Csók István (1865 - 1961) festészete - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)
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RESUME 441 István Csók's biography and career 1865, the Csók Family István Csók was born in his father's mill in Sáregres, Fejér County, Hungary on February 13th, 1865. He was baptized and registered by the Reformed Church there. His father is the miller Lajos Csók. His mother is Julianna Öreg, and his maternal grandfather is János Öreg, a mill owner in Pátka. Their circle of friends and relatives includes: Zsigmond Horváth (later his godfather), Lajos Vida the pastor of Egres, János Pesthy the schoolmaster and cantor, József Bordées a mill owner in Simontornya, Doctor Kiss from Simontornya, and János Kasza of whom we know little. His brother, Lajos Csók, was a landowner-farmer and a teacher of Georgikon in Keszthely with a wife named Katalin Ferenczy.The painter was a regular visitor at their property in Dunaszentgyörgy. His sisters: Mrs. Megyeresy (maiden name: Mária Csók), the calvinist pastor's wife in Fadd; Mrs. Vida (maiden name: Júlia Csók) the pastor's wife in Egres; Mrs. Győré (maiden name: Janka Csók) and Mrs. Győré (maiden name: Ida Csók) the town-clerk's wife in Sárszentlőrinc. 1873-1875 Csók attends primary school in Nagykőrös from the age of 8 to 10, where his uncle works as a teacher in the lyceum. 1875-1879 He goes to secondary school in Székesfehérvár between the age of 10-14, when he was already interested in drawing. One of his works depicts a fountain with putti in the park of a castle. According to the caption it was drawn in 1877 with pencil (when he was merely 12), and was most likely a copy of a wood engraving. (1.4) 1879-1882, his studies He attends the 5th and 6th grade at the secondary school in Buda (today FerencToldy Grammar School), where his older brother has also studied. He fails and is forced to repeat the 5th grade. He initially rents a flat on the Országház Street with some friends; later, he moves to Adolf Bartus in Óbuda. He and his company regularly visit performances in the Castle Theater, where he becomes an enthusiastic admirer of Emilia Márkus. His father intends to make him become a mechanical engineer, but his interest turns to painting in the first year of school. He notes in the diary of his student days that he completed his first oil-painting on February 20th, 1880, a copy of an oil-print of the Miramare Castle. His single well-known work from this period is a small ornamented drawing created with the aquarelle method, which may have been done in ornamentation practice of his grammar school. Its caption proves that the piece Plate-patterns (III.3), is created under Lajos Kreybig, his art teacher, in 1880 when he was in the 5th grade. He submits one of I. his attempts, a drawing of the Csókakő Castle, along with a romantic description of the building, to the periodical Ország-Világ, but the editors turn him down. He commits himself to painting in the winter of 1880-1881, after having seen Diana's Hunting by Hans Makart (III.6) in the Műcsarnok, which made an overwhelming impression to him. 1882-1885 He is the scholar of the Drawing School for three school years (1882/83,1883/84,1884/85). He takes a preparatory course in the first year then becomes a guest student. His masters are János Greguss and Bertalan Székely. He becomes an art student of Károly Lotz's "painting-training class" from the second semester of the third year. Following the academic method of education, he copies antique plasters {Study of a Head, 111.4). He adapts the approach of academic-naturalism in his oil-paintings of "headstudies" (The Old Bearded Man, 1884, in private ownership; A Very Old Man's Head, Female Head Studies, Hungarian National Gallery - HNG, in Hungarian MNG). According to his recollection, the school does not affect him significantly; he is much more influenced by art galleries and his classmates. He makes copies in the Hungarian National Museum and in the National Gallery (part of the Museum of Fine Arts today). His circle of friends includes: Ákos Garay, Béla Iványi-Grünwald,Tivadar Zemplényi, Artúr Halmi and Antal Neogrády. May Day and Lark by Pal Szinyei Merse, which are on display in the Art Gallery in the spring of 1883, affect him deeply. In spite of these his first more monumental figurai composition follows Mihály Munkácsy's model of folk genre-pictures. The Victim (I.5), a multi-figured painting with dramatic composition, depicts villagers mourning over the young victim of a conflagration. Csók enters a competition conducted by the Magyar Szalon with this picture and triumphs over József Rippl-Rónai by winning the first prize. 1885-1887, Munich He is admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the autumn of 1 885, where he first becomes the scholar of the preparatory class conducted by Gabriel von Hackl. Soon he can change to Ludwig von Löfftz's painting course in the spring semester thanks to his successful drawing studies. His remaining male nude figures from this period represent the absolute mastery of the approach of academic-naturalism in Munich (Standing Man, Kneeling Man, Nude Boy, Fluting Nude's Back, Old Man Sitting, MNG ; Study of a Lying Nude, 1.9). He is introduced to Simon Hollósy by Ákos Garay. His hangouts are: Café Probst, Café Minerva and Mama Unger's Restaurant, the place of the "pigman's club" of young painters: Csók, Garay, Béla Iványi-Grünwald, Jenő Kéméndy, Antal Neogrády, Elek Szamossy, Géza Faragó, József Rippl-Rónai. Despite Hollósy's influence, he does not consider himself his disciple; according to his recollection the idea to establish the school originates from the ■
