Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)

Emőke Bodonyi: Czóbel's water colours and graphic works

192. Béla Czóbel: Youth, 1930. Missing

193. Béla Czóbel: Kneeling Nude, 1940S-1950S. Szentendre, Ferenczy Museum

194. Béla Czóbel: Reclining Female Figure Leaning on Her Head, 1940S. Szentendre, Ferenczy Museum

of the early works, and the fine nuances with the concordance of wide countours play the leading role. The Girl Portrait, or even better the Flower Still-life are aiming at the most complete use of the expression of drawing. The richness of the execution and the texture result the painting character of these drawings.”57

According to Gombosi Czóbel’s graphic works are not only picturesque, but textural as well, and he considers Czóbel, together with József Egry the best examples for this method. Beside the composition building and painting techniques, this also applies to the artist’s relation to the surrounding world and its details.58

The change of technical ambitions can also be felt on a dark toned Portrait of a Man from 1920S, on which the whole surface is covered with the linear web of charcoal and chalk, the portrait raises of this arranged with lighter parts (Plate 178). Compared to this, Czóbel’s drawings move towards a lyric way of representation. Where the surface is more linear and robust, he wraps it with a layer of haze, the effect of the fine linear drawings is also picturesque, like his refined female portraits.

57 Gombosi (op. cit. in note 2), n.p. [5].

58 Majoros, Valéria: “Gombosi György nézetei a rajzmüvészetről, kézírásos hagyatéka alapján [György Gombosi’s View on Graphic Art Based on his Handwritten Legacy]”,. Ars Hungarica, 1982, No. 2, p 221.

CZÓBEL’S WATER COLOURS AND GRAPHIC WORKS

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