Kertész Róbert - V. Szász József - Zsolnay László szerk.: Szolnoki művésztelep 1902-2002 - 100 éves a szolnoki művésztelep (2001)
The Artist's Colony of Szolnok 1902-2002
town grabbed him so much that he started to visit it frequently afterwards. It was this that led him out of his Paris period, which had been many times meretricious, exterior and lacking the more serious artistic material; this new period filled his art with new contents. Szolnok, which, next to Paris, became his main residence in his later years, united the various directions of his art. In the 70s he contracted a close friendship with Pettenkofen, but he did not become one of his epigons. He made quick sketches of his experiences in Szolnok, mainly vivid scenes of fairs, which he later elaborated in Paris. This period was the palmy days of his oeuvre, the conscious standing against the official academic art. He departed from the usual representation, his paintings were light, they depicted animated life. He returned to town at the beginning of the 1900s, and he revived his previous themes, but he was not able to compensate the freshness of his previous pictures with his perfected pictorial technique. His paintings became somewhat monotonous. These, of course, still do not diminish his merits in the foundation of the Artists' Colony of Szolnok, since next to Pettenkofen, it was Deák-Ébner, who called public attention to this plain townlet, which became a significant artistic centre in decades to come. It was Lajos Deák-Ébner who raised interest in Painters at tne 0 /</ Anists > Colony of Szolnok Sándor Bihari towards Szolnok. He first visited the town in 1885, and he immediately started loving it and he stayed here not only for summer but also all year round. His pictures vivified his age and society, his calm dispassionateness and superior criticism made them so entrancing. His latest works were the pearls of the Hungarian plein-air pictorial art. His death in 1906 meant a severe loss both for Hungary's art and the people of Szolnok. The giant painter of that age, László Mednyánszky appeared several times in Szolnok amidst his wanderings, and although due to his personality he did not intend to settle down in a prospective artists' colony, he still promoted and assisted the foundation with his signature. From the 80s of the 19th century onwards many outstanding personalities of Hungarian fine art sought and found their themes in the picturesqueness of Szolnok and its countryside. By the end of the century the idea of founding an artists' colony w?s approaching materialization. Apart from the capabilities of the land and the wishes of the artists working here other factors also came into consideration. In 1876 Szolnok became a shire town again and started developing vigorously. By the turn of the century the speedy development of communication, the construction of railway lines and the appearance of industry turned the picturesque townlet into one of the busiest expanding towns of the Great Hungarian Plain. The newspapers of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county on 14th October, 1899 wrote: "...several Hungarian artists petitioned the Ministry of Religion and Education asking for the minister's assistance to effectuate an artists' colony. The artists themselves assigned Szolnok as the first site of the colony. Gyula Wlassich called upon the artists to state the case in details, and name their representative, with whom he would start negotiations." The artists completed their plans and handed them in to the Ministry on 13th October, 1899. The artists who backed up the creation of the artists' colony included: László Mednyánszky, Sándor Bihari, Ferenc Olgyay, Dániel Mihalik, Lajos Szlányi, László Hegedüs, Andor Boruth, Nándor Katona, Károly Pongrácz, János Vaszari, Károly Kernstock and Adolf Fényes. 140
