Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Mimi Kratochwill: Béla Czóbel's mature period, 1925-1976
230. Béla Czóbel in France in 1929. Private collection From 1928 Czóbel lived at 2-4 Rue Barrault, in rented accommodation number 2 with a garden that contained several studios. Set in one of Paris’s quiet districts, it provided a home to the artist for several decades allowing him to calmly retreat and to immerse himself in his work. The accommodation is not only alluded to in his correspondence but is also documented by photos of the artist and his models. The row of houses on the other side of this street that have remained in largely the same condition also features in several of Czóbel’s pictures such as in Aux Butte de Caille (Plate 207). Such pictures prove that it was not only subtly contoured portraits of women and still-lives that he regarded as important but also more vibrant compositions of urban scenes, which surrounded him in his own neighbourhood.5 One of the pictures from the period is owned by the state, while the other was stolen from Czóbel’s studio in Szentendre and efforts by the police to recover it have not yet been successful. 231. Czóbel and his daughter, Lisa, in Normandy at the end of THE 1920S. Private collection 5 The studio house is still used to this day, with its garden’s vegetation and creepers having grown lusher in the meantime and, thus, exudating a romantic atmosphere. BELA CZOBEL’S MATURE PERIOD, 1925-1976 147
