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

Gergely Barki: Czóbel from Paris to Paris 1903-1925

47. Béla Czóbel: Market Corner, 1905. Private collection

facsimile that appears - as picture within a picture - in the background of the painting Little Girl in front of a Bed (Plate 46). Presumably, he displayed the latter painting under the title Intérieur Gris avec Pille at the Salon des Indépendants the following spring, in 1906. From that catalogue, we learn the address of his studio at the time (9 Boulevard de Vaugirard). Nevertheless, a host of works have turned up in the previous years that were painted from the window of the room that his colleague, András Mikola rented in the Hotel au BonCoinatthe corner of Rue Poinsot and Rue Edgar Quinet. Besides the aforementioned market scene from 1905, on the back sheet of a still-life painted by András Mikola, there is an unsigned cityscape - now considered a work by Czóbel, Paris Street II (Plate 51). Here we see the small square in Montparnasse on a lively market day; while on a larger canvas, in the picture entitled Paris Street (Plate 48), only one pedestrian crosses the deserted street corner in the afternoon sunlight. According to Paul Alexandre’s recollections, these paintings of market squares had a great effect on Modigliani, who had just arrived in Paris: “In his [Modigliani’s] drawings, there lies invention, the simplification and purification of forms. [...] While seeking simplification in drawing, certain paintings by Rousseau le Douanier fascinated him, as well as Czóbel’s marketplace figures.”19

19 Paul Alexandre is quoted by his son. In: Alexandre, Noel: Modigliani inconnu. Paris: Albin Michell Collection, 1993, p 65.

CZÓBEL FROM PARIS TO PARIS, 1903-1925

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