Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)
Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Karlovits Károly – Beke László: The beginnings of Photography in Hungary. p. 249–267. t. LXXXIII–CIV.
which earlier sold for ten Florins a piece, for only five Florins. He took part in the 1842 Exhibition of Fine Arts showing twenty of his daguerreotypes. In the spring of 1842 he took a picture of the Pozsony Parliament members. In the fall he photographed the deputies of the Parliament at Kolozsvár. Today however, only one of his works can be certainly identified. It shows Kossuth Lajos, Ruttkay József and Both Pál in the summer of 1841. Unfortunately, even this picture is only a reproduction, made in modern times. Here we should discuss the survival of daguerreotypes as a whole in Hungary. Estimates suggest that probably more than ten thousand of such pictures were made in Hungary from 1840 until the middle of the 1850's. There are however, only some 200 pieces known today including those of foreign origin as well. (This exhibition contains more than fifty dauerreotypes, a great part of which have never been published). The names of some of the Hungarian daguerreotypists are known: Strelisky Lipót, Kawalky Lajos, Heller József, Mayer György, Zsák Moritz, Tarsch Ferenc, Kogler, Stuhr, Újházy Ferenc, Róth Imre, Gola Ádám, Mezey Lajos, Zeyk Miklós, Buda Elek, Komis Zsigmond, Mikó Imre etc. Among these artists however, it is only Strelisky Zsák, Mezey, Heller and Gola whose pictures are known and which can be identified with great certainty. (This list is further enriched by a privately owned daguerreotype which has been discovered recently. The picture shows Tormay Károly and his son, Béla in Szekszárd around 1844—1845. The signature "Perczelsky" ( ?) is engraved in it). It is also known that Jedlik Ányos, the great scientist, made daguerreotypes as an amateur as well. His camera, bought from Prokesch in Vienna in 1842, is kept in the Győr Benedictin Secondary School. An objective made in 1843 can be found in the collections of the same school. It was manufactured by Fájth János, a Pest optician to the order of Jedlik Ányos. The objective was constructed following the calculations of Jedlik Ányos himself. (The optician Fájth János, later joined Barabás Miklós and together they opened a studio.) According to the inventory book of the Győr Benedictin Secondary School — which was established by Jedlik Ányos in 1831 — a camera, used for educational purposes, was purchased as early as 1843. The daguerreotypes which have survived show two main interrelationships with the dominant forms of artistic representation and commerce of their age. First, the majority of them are portraits. Thus, not only do the poses of the models follow schemes typical for 19 th century miniatures but their "accessories" are also similar to those paintings. Many of them are framed in velvet providing an intimate atmosphere, or kept in finely worked leather cases etc. It was also a custom to wear daguerreotypes as medalions around the neck. There is even a portrait taken from a bracelet in the material of this exhibition. All these characteristics are not surprising, if one remembers that many of the daguerreotypists were originally painters or goldsmiths. Thus, sometimes they retained their first profession as well as the new one of photographer. The other property of the material is that is related to the reproduction and graphic multiplication of pictures. J. Berres, a medical professor in Vienna, wrote a study titled "Phototyp" in the summer of 1840. He invented a printing plate made from daguerreotypes. No applications of his method however, are known from Hungary. On the other hand, surprisingly, individual or small series of daguerreotype reproductions of widely distributed lithographs were made. (For example Strelisky's copy of Borsos-Pettenkoffen's lithograph showing the first Hungarian Parliament, and small size daguerreotype portraits of Bem, Batthyány and Kossuth.) It was even more common, that authentic, photographed portraits were graphically reproduced in large numbers (and maybe re-copied once more by) photographic methods. This way of representation was used to popularize public personalities, famous politicians and heros of the Hungarian War of Independence. Thus, one may establish quite a large iconographie collection concerning the portraits of Petőfi or Kossuth. Particularly numerous are pictures taken of Kossuth when he emigrated. A careful study of portraits made by the daguerreotypist Josiah Johnson Hawes in Boston (1852) allows one to draw at least one interesting conclusion. It becomes apparent that these pictures are not copies, but rather all individual daguerreotypes made quickly at one sitting, one after the other. An unidentified Kossuth daguerreotype in the collections of the Museum of Hungarian Workers' Movement (inventory number: 1928/1961) is associated with a short news story on April 15, 1852 in Humphrey's Journal that Thomas Faris of Cincinnati made a life-size portrait of Kossuth which would provide the basis of Eaton's painting. (See B. Newhall: The Daguerreotype in America. New York 1976 3 . p. 76.). The portrait of Zeyk Domokos — who was a captain in the Hungarian army in the 1848—1849 War of Independence (Marosvásárhely 1816 — Segesvár 1849) and General Bern's adjutant — is particularly interesting in terms of the variety of copying techniques used, which resulted in interesting removals of the medium. The only actual portrait of him was probably made by his relative Zeyk Miklós sen., who was one of the first of Hungarian daguerreotypists. This daguerreotype however, has survived only as a copy from the end of the last century. In addition, Kemény Julianna, the widow of the officer had a locket painted based on the daguerreotype (private property in Budapest). Then, Kemény Julianna was photographed with the locket which also provided a basis for the portraits of Zeyk Domokos painted by Sikó Lajos (private property in Transylvania), and a drawing by Count Haller. In the end, the painting was used to make Wessely's and Felte's lithograph (See Nagy Sándor: Háromszék önvédelmi harcza 1848—49. — The struggle for the defence of Háromszék in 1848—1849. Kolozsvár 1896. p. 159.). The works of G о 1 a Ádám (who worked in Buda after 1945) were the earliest reproductions of works of art in Hungary in a strict sense. On August 28, 1846 he made eighteen excellent daguerreotypes in the studio of Feren:zy István. The pictures show the plan of the Matthias statue (which was soon to be destroyed, no patron having been found) and other works of the sculptor. These pictures made in the patio belonging to the studio are among the first Hungarian open air photographs. Another picture of this kind is the daguerreotype showing the Matthias church taken by an unknown artist, and owned by the Budapest History Museum. The distribution of stereo-photography belongs to the history of daguerreotype as well. Its discovery is associated with the 1848 experiments of D. Bewster, an English physicist. The principle upon which this technique is based is that two pictures are made side by side with a double objective camera. The distance between the two lenses is the same as the distance between the eyes. The pictures may thus be enjoyed using a double viewer with the same structure and provide a perfect illusion of depth, "block-seeing" or "massive view" as it was called in the contemporary Hungarian of that time. This was the way the hand colored portrait of Királyfalvi Gerhardt Daniel's wife was made by the Brunn photographer Leopold Quittner around 1855. (Two versions of this picture are known. One is in the National Technical Museum, while the other is in the collections of the Society of Hungarian Photographic Artists.) Meanwhile, the literature dealing with daguerreotypes also proliferated in Hungary. Following Zimmermann's book came Henszlmann Imre's study published with the title: „Párhuzam az ó- és újkori művészeti nézetek és nevelések között, különös tekintettel a művészeti fejlődésre Magyarországon" (Parallels between classical and modern views on art and education, with a special reference to the artistic development in Hungary. Pest 1841). In this book the widely respected art historian and archaeologist made a very clear point — unfortunately against photography. A detailed description of a photographer's studio in the capital is given by Nagy Ignác in his literary work "Magyar titkok" (Hungarian secrets. Pest 1845). Daguerreotype used as a metaphor occurred in other publications as well. Such works include : Nagy Károly : Daguerreotyp (Pozsony 1841) ; Daguerreotypen von einem ungarischen Edelmann (1861?); Roboz István: Daguerreotype vagy azon nevezetességek arcképcsarnoka, akik nem támogatják az irodalmat (Daguerreotype or the portraits of those notables who do not support literature. Pest 1863) etc. It is a curiosity in the history of photography that the Society of Vienna Photographers commissioned a composer to write a waltz on the 25 th anniversary of daguerreotype's invention (Alex Leitermayer: DaguerreWalzer. 1864. The score of this waltz was distributed in Pest as well by Rózsavölgyi.) Talbotype, the first negative-positive technique also had its 252
