Gärtner Petra (szerk.): Csók István (1865 - 1961) festészete - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)
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442 RESUME circle of young artists. Although he spends the school year of 1886/1887in Munich, he becomes more and more dissatisfied with the prevailing academic approach. 1887 Leaving Munich he spends the summer in his native village. His Father's Portrait (11.6), with its essential depiction and delicate coloration is a remarkable naturalist portrait representation of his age and can be considered the first summary of his academic studies. However, his works (The Mill-brook, cat. 86; Garden in Cece, cat. 88) painted in his native village follow an approach which is sensitive to the naturalist atmospheric effects of the plein air. 1887-1889, Paris He arrives in Paris in 1887 with Béla Iványi-Grünwald.They work at the Colarossi Academy for a short time before entering the Julian Academy in December, where Károly Ferenczy soon joins them. Csók spends two years at the academy where his masters are Tony Robert-Fleury and William Adolphe Bouguereau.The school was in an attic room, reconstructed as a studio, reached via wooden stairs from the court of a tenement in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denise. The expenses of accessories and models are covered by Rodolphe Julian. The model (sometimes two of them simultaneously) pose for 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of rest. He goes to art galleries and concerts with Béla Iványi-Grünwald and Károly Ferenczy and they discuss their favorite readings as well. Csók becomes acquainted with Wagner's music in Paris, of which he remains an enthusiastic admirer. The trio's favorite novel is L'Oeuvre by Zola (1886), whose protagonist embodies the modern role of the artist. He acknowledges the paintings of Courbet, Millet and Puvis de Chavannes from his contemporaries, but that of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret have the strongest impression on him. Their hangout is the Grand Café, where they meet Géza Faragó, Koroknyai Ottó (a colleague of Mihály Munkácsy), Elek Szamossy and József Rippl-Rónai on a regular basis. 1888 Csók leaves Paris again. He sketches the Potato Peelers and the Gathering Flay. After his return to Paris he reworks the Potato Peelers in the winter of 1888-1889. 1889 The Potato Peelers (cat. 4) becomes his first work to be exhibited publicly; the piece debuts at the World Fair in Paris in 1889. The jury gives his work the title of Honorable Mention. His address in Paris is then: 17. Rue Jacob No. 25.064. He returns home after the exposition. He drafts the Gathering Flay in the summer, and carries out model-studies of the Lord’s Supper in the autumn. He travels to Munich at the end of the year and works on the Lord's Supper in his studio in the Randbergstrasse. 1890 Csók returns home from Munich. His new model is Örzsi Érsek. He repaints the Lord's Supper (“Do This in Memory of Me", cat. 7), and finishes the Gathering Hay (cat. 9) in the summer.These works, including the Potato Peelers, appear at the winter exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts where even Franz Joseph, who visits the exhibition in person, lingers over the artist's unshaded works. His naturalistic genre-pictures make him known immediately, Tamás Szana praises his works in A Hét, and the Lord's Supper is analyzed and reproduced by the Vasárnapi Újság. > The Lord's Table (cat. 6) 1891 He spends the winter in Munich again. He rents a studio in Luisenstrasse, where he paints the Orphans. Béla Iványi-Grünwald returns from Paris so they can work near each other again. Csók's Lord's Supper is nominated for the Munkácsy Award but in February he receives news that After the Examination by Artúr Halmi has won the prize. He displays his work in the Paris Salon in spring, where the jury awards a Third Class golden medal to it. He paints his mother's portrait in Nyáregres in the summer. (11.5) In the meantime, the Lord's Supper is exhibited in Glaspalast in Munich along with the Orphans (cat. 8). Its composition causes a huge sensation with its bluish lights and is displayed by the Society of Fine Arts at its winter exhibition, where he wins the grand prize of HUF 1000. His painting is bought by the state for the Museum of Fine Arts. 1892 He paints At the Employment Agency (cat. 5), which is exhibited in Glaspalast in the summer and at the Society of Fine Arts'winter exhibition. He rents a new studio with a skylight in Munich and starts preparatory work for Erzsébet Báthory. 1893 The Day-nurse is completed in Munich. The Erzsébet Báthory is in process. 1894 The Orphans wins the gold medal from the Austrian State at the international exhibition in Vienna. The Lord's Supper receives the first class gold medal in Antwerp. He completes the Erzsébet Báthory in Munich at the end of the year. (1.12) 1895 The Erzsébet Báthory is exhibited in the Paris Salon in May; the Art Gallery displays it exclusively in the autumn. His works depicting historical subjects mostly receive words of acknowledgement by numerous Hungarian critics. His works are exhibited in Warsaw in December. József Prém introduces his career in an article in the Magyar Szalon. His father dies in July.
